The Marauders' Account
by Eizoku
Summary: As the title says, and from Remus Lupin's point of view for the most part. Rated for violence, language, and realism (and I'm not joking there).
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the items in the following text that are recognized as being written in J.K. Rowling's books. As for the rest...it's mine.  
  
Spoilers from: All five books, and possibly from the third movie.  
  
Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, and for the fact that it is supposed to be as realistic as possible. It seems as though entertainment that is completely realistic these days is not appropriate for the children...I wonder why?  
  
Pairings: I don't especially like to write about romance...so I don't. But there will obviously be the Lily ending up with James, as that's what happened. But this is about Remus, so I don't care much about those two.   
  
Genre: General/Humor.... Hey, it was the Marauders' time, after all!  
  
Additional notes: A large chunk of this was written before the fifth book, so things such as the color of Sirius's hair and eyes may be off...but I happen to like my version better. Don't worry; his hair and eyes will naturally change as the story goes along. Have none of you noticed that your hair gets darker or lighter as you grow? And eyes do change as well—my dad's eyes used to be blue...now they're gray.  
  
Well, I think that's about all you need to know for now, so on with the story!  
  
-:-: The Marauders' Account :-:-  
  
Written by Eizoku  
  
Prologue  
  
"I'll take you back to the start." Coldplay, 'The Scientist'  
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November 9th, 1965  
  
The occupants of the castle listened anxiously as they heard high screams shift into the anguished howling of a young wolf. By now, everyone had heard about the young Lupin boy who had been bitten by a werewolf the previous month. And on his own birthday, too. Although several of them felt pity for the boy, many of them had completely rearranged their opinion of him. He wasn't human anymore; he was a dark creature that couldn't be trusted. He was bound to become a delinquent, they could tell.  
  
Worst of all, though, was the master of the castle. Jonathan greatly disliked any dark creatures, and even though he respected Dorian Lupin, the fact that Dorian's son was now a werewolf also placed the young father in the category of people to be wary of. He decided that he didn't want the Lupin family to work for him anymore. Tomorrow, they would have to go. Until then, all he could do was wait.  
  
In the morning, Jacqueline went into Remus's room to find her son unconscious on the rug by the fireplace, bloody slashes all over his body, along with dark bruises that seemed to have come from the boy attempting to throw himself at the door to get out. Jacqueline gently wrapped a warm quilt around Remus's small, frail form and held him to her chest. Then she lifted him up and carried him out to be looked at by the castle's personal Healer.  
  
However, the woman refused Remus, and both Jacqueline and Dorian were told to leave the castle and never come back with their cursed son.  
  
As Jacqueline and Dorian walked down the hill, away from the castle, Jacqueline sang to the sleeping boy in her arms, while Dorian carried their sparse belongings.  
  
"Child, sleep now  
  
Enter your world of dreams  
  
Your paradise, it seems  
  
Leave this harsh world  
  
Go to the place where  
  
The sun warms your smiling face  
  
And the faeries dance in the  
  
Fields around you  
  
Laugh in the light  
  
Stay away from the cold dark  
  
Child, sleep now...."  
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November 11, 1965  
  
"Please, sir, all I am asking for is a room for the night. I give you my word that we will be gone by morning," Dorian pleaded through the barely open doorway. He had stuck his foot in between the door and the frame, as well as braced it with his elbow as he pressed the door open a little more. All around him, gusts of rain blew about, scattering loose newspapers and random bits of trash through the street. The streetlamps had gone out mere minutes ago.  
  
"Do you have money?" the man behind the door asked, scowling at Dorian, before his eyes flickered disgustedly at the woman and small child huddled underneath an overcoat on the doorstep, trying to stay out of the rain. The child's bright misty-blue eyes could be seen unusually clearly in the shadows, staring up at the man.  
  
"I have a little money," Dorian offered. "And I could do some chores if you needed, like washing dishes or similar, if that that isn't enough.... _Please_, sir. It's just for the one night."  
  
The man gave a huffy sigh and unlocked the chain holding the door shut. "Fine. Well?! Get in, then! I don't need the water to blow in here!"  
  
Dorian led his wife and son in through the door in relief. "Thank you sir, we are very grateful for you kindness."  
  
The man shrugged it off and ushered them toward the hall. "Come on, come on," he grumbled. "I don't need you dripping all over my lobby." He eyed Jacqueline and Remus as they removed the overcoat and tried to straighten out their rumpled clothing.  
  
Jacqueline had managed to keep the rain off of her hair, but Remus seemed to have gotten soaked to the skin on the upper part of his body. His light brown hair had begun to curl from the wetness, and several locks had plastered themselves to his cheeks. He clung to a section of Jacqueline's skirt as he looked around in childish awe, but when his mother began to shake out the overcoat and relieve Dorian of a few of their smaller bags, Remus let go and instead latched onto Dorian's right leg.  
  
"Daddy, I'm hungry. Are we going to eat soon?"  
  
Dorian smiled down at him. "Yes, we'll have something to eat in a moment, Remus." They followed the man down the hall, and then into a small room.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
1966  
  
There was a loud, painful sound as Jacqueline's favorite blue glass bowl fell to the floor and shattered. Remus had frozen in shock, staring at the glittering mess on the floor in front of him. Then, without warning, he burst into noisy tears. Jacqueline rushed over to him.  
  
"Oh, oh, honey, it's alright! Don't cry. Look, I can fix it up in no time at all!" She picked up her wand from the counter and gave it a short wave. The shards of glass on the floor flew up and reformed the bowl, and then floated safely onto the counter. However, Remus was not comforted by this. He pressed his hands to his face, hiding his eyes from view, and then dropped to the floor in a heap, his whole body shaking with his sobs.  
  
For a few seconds, Jacqueline frowned at Remus's small body in confusion, and then her blue eyes widened slightly as she realized what was wrong. She quickly gathered Remus in her arms and kissed the top of his head several times, murmuring words of comfort. Time was nearing the full moon, and the poor child's level of emotions was on a dangerously tipsy seesaw. Remus was prone to having sudden tantrums like this, over the smallest of issues, when the moon was close to full.  
  
Soon, Remus's sobs had become jolting hiccups as Jacqueline rubbed his back and stroked her fingers through his hair.  
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1966  
  
Remus took the deep red pouch by the bottom and turned it over as he sat on the kitchen floor. Buttons of all shapes and sizes and colors scattered over the smooth tile, clattering as they hit each other and the floor.  
  
There were footsteps in the hall, and Dorian stopped short at the door to the kitchen, his left foot inches away from a button of swirled gold and silver. His eyes lifted over the mess and rested on the pale eyes of his son. Smiling, he carefully stepped around several buttons and walked over to Remus.  
  
"What do we have here?" he asked, bending down and lightly kissing the top of Remus's head.  
  
"Mama said I could play with my buttons in here, as long as I cleaned them aaaall up when I was done," Remus smiled up at Dorian. "Ooh, and guess what!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Mama gave me five brand-new ones!" He held out his tiny fist, showing off his new treasures. "Aren't they bea-ut-i-ful?" he asked, carefully pronouncing the long word.  
  
Dorian made a show of examining each button in Remus's hand, and then he nodded, smiled, and replied, "Yes, they are indeed beautiful, Remus; quite the prize. Do you think Mama would give _me_ some pretty new buttons, too?"  
  
Remus blinked, and then he gave Dorian a silly smile. "_Daddy_, you don't get _buttons_! Mama said—"  
  
"That all of the best buttons go to the sweetest one in the house, and I must say, Remus fulfills that category," Jacqueline finished, stepping into the kitchen, a glass of iced tea in her hand.  
  
Remus's eyes lit up as he caught sight of the glass, and he jumped to his feet. "Ooh, Mama, can I have a sip? Please, please?"  
  
Jacqueline laughed and held out the glass to Remus's outstretched hands. "Alright, but only a small sip. We all know how you like to guzzle—" She broke off as Remus held the glass up to his mouth with both hands and proceeded to drink the remains of the tea. Jacqueline exchanged an amused glance with Dorian as they heard the distinct sound of crunching ice, and Remus held out the glass again for her to take back.  
  
"Yum, yum, crunchy!" He smiled and plopped back down on the floor, chewing on a mouthful of ice.  
  
Jacqueline sighed and stepped around the scattered buttons, heading toward the sink. "I guess I'll do these dishes then," she announced. "Remus, could you move some of your buttons so that I have a pathway to walk on?"  
  
"O-kay!"  
  
Remus leaned forward and began to gather the buttons back toward his lap with his arms, but stopped suddenly, watching a button that had started hopping around on the floor. He stared, fascinated, as a few more buttons began moving around as well. They rolled, jumped, twirled, and even flew up into the air to shoot around a bit before coming back down to dance around by Remus's feet.  
  
Jacqueline also watched in amusement as Dorian flicked his wand about, sending the buttons into all kinds of crazy dances, scattering them about the kitchen floor while also clearing a walkway for Jacqueline to move around the kitchen without stepping on dozens of buttons.  
  
"Make a castle, Daddy! A castle! Can you do that?" Remus had figured out who was making his precious buttons move.  
  
"Well, I suppose.... But I'll just put a little spell on them, and then I'm going to help your mother do these dishes; how does that sound?" Dorian wrapped an arm around Jacqueline's waist and kissed her lightly on the lips. They were interrupted when Remus made a sound from the floor.  
  
"Ewww! Don't do that, Daddy!" Remus had his small hands covering his eyes as he looked up at his parents, his face distorted by a childishly disgusted expression.  
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Late Autumn 1968  
  
Remus sat cross-legged by the coffee table in the Lupin's sitting room, a book set out before him as he scribbled in it with his quill. Every once in a while he would pause and frown thoughtfully, lightly tapping the fingers of his left hand on the page before resuming writing.  
  
When Remus was almost finished with the history homework, Dorian entered through the front door, and as he was removing his coat and hat, he called out, "Jacqueline! Remus! I have wonderful news!"  
  
Jacqueline came carefully down the stairs and kissed Dorian, one hand on her slightly enlarged abdomen. "What is it, dear?" They walked into the sitting room to find Remus staring up at them in interest, his history book forgotten.  
  
"What happened, Dad?" he asked.  
  
Dorian smiled widely. "I was promoted! It's not that much higher than what I was doing before, but the pay is much better, as well as the conditions I will be working in. And it will be much better for the baby if we have a more secure income."  
  
"Oh, that _is_ wonderful, Dorian!" Jacqueline exclaimed happily, embracing him.  
  
Dorian turned to Remus, who was also smiling. "How would you like to get some new clothing next time we go shopping, Remus? And I'm sure a little gift can be added to that as well...."  
  
"Really? I can get some new clothes?" Remus had stood up, revealing the rather worn slacks he had on at the moment, and the too-large sweater that had once belonged to Dorian. The sweater's collar was far too wide for Remus, and rested dangerously near the edges of his bare shoulders. Jacqueline had hemmed the sleeves so that they didn't get in the way, but she had left the rest as it was.  
  
Dorian grinned down at his son. "Yes, you can get some new clothes. Oh, and Jacqueline," he added, turning back to her, "what do you say to the idea of a little vacation? Jim said that a little while after I get settled in, I could have some time off to be with you two and have some fun for a change."  
  
Jacqueline's eyes lit up, and she turned to Remus. "Oh, did you hear that, Remus? Doesn't that sound lovely?"  
  
Remus nodded excitedly. "Where would we be going?"  
  
"Well," Dorian began, "my new position will involve me going up north in the city, so I thought that I could also check out how everything will be while we were up there...it's near where we used to live, actually, so it shouldn't be too bad."  
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December 1968  
  
Remus winced slightly as they got out of the cab and he was overwhelmed by the noise of the city. The honking of car horns; the loud music coming from someone's radio on the steps in front of a red brick building; the general constant hustle and bustle of people on the street.... All of it pained his sensitive hearing, and his eyes threatened to water.  
  
"Remus? What's wrong?" Jacqueline inquired, noticing his discomfort.  
  
He edged close enough so that he could whisper and she would hear, "Everything's so loud...it hurts, Mama."  
  
She frowned slightly. "But, it's not that loud at all—oh!" Her eyes widened as it struck her why it seemed louder to Remus. She bent down so her head was level with his. "Is it really that much different for you?"  
  
Remus nodded. "It's...it's like everything is shouting in my ears." Jacqueline saw his hands twitch, as if he wanted to lift them and press them against his head.  
  
"Ah...well, we'll be inside soon, and then we can figure out what to do about it, alright, love?"  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Good." She turned to her husband. "Dorian? Can we get inside? It's rather cold out here."  
  
Once they were inside the hotel lobby, Jacqueline explained in a hushed voice what was wrong.  
  
"I'm sorry, but there isn't really anything I can do about that, Remus," Dorian replied softly. "The only spell I could use would be the silencing spell, but that is too dangerous, because then you wouldn't be able to hear anything at all."  
  
"Oh," Remus said quietly. "Well...well, maybe if I just try to ignore it...?" he began hopefully.  
  
"Do you think that would work?" Dorian asked, raising his eyebrows in concern.  
  
"I dunno...but I could try." Remus shrugged, pretending it wasn't affecting him as much as it actually was.  
  
"Alright, we can try that, and once we're outside, I'll buy you a hot chocolate, how about that? Then you'll be distracted by trying to not burn your tongue!" He smiled and ruffled Remus's hair.  
  
"Oh, my. We're quite near our old home," Jacqueline commented in some surprise, as she glanced at the map of the city.  
  
Dorian nodded. "Yes, we are. The castle is just outside the border of this city. You and Remus can go visit it if you'd like, although I don't think you will be able to see anything other than ruins now."  
  
Remus looked up from the hot chocolate he had been sipping. "Why is it ruins now, Dad?"  
  
"Oh, the castle isn't in ruins, Remus, but Jonathan has most likely set up a spell around the property that causes it to look like castle ruins to outsiders. It is made so, so that unwanted visitors do not bother him."  
  
Remus nodded in understanding. They were not welcome anymore at the castle where he was born and had lived for his first five years. Jonathan used to be a close friend to Remus's father; in fact, Remus's middle name came from Dorian's fondness for the master of the castle. Jonathan had been quite pleased when he found out the origin of Remus's middle name, and he used to always save special gifts for Remus whenever he could.  
  
However, that all changed when Remus was bitten that fateful day.  
  
The next day, while Dorian was meeting with a man about his new job position, Jacqueline and Remus took a bus out to the border of the city. Remus wore his new coat over a crisp white button-down shirt and black slacks, and he was enjoying the feel of new clothing. It felt nice to not be wearing hand-me-downs for once.  
  
Around one-thirty in the afternoon, they arrived at their destination. Jacqueline allowed Remus to go on ahead to the gates, for she realized halfway up the hill that she wasn't sure if she could handle seeing the castle again. Remus, however, wanted badly to see the castle that he could hardly remember anymore.  
  
Besides, Jacqueline wasn't worried for Remus. She knew he could handle himself if anything happened. Sometimes she wondered if he would have been so intelligent and skilled if that werewolf had not bitten him. It had taught him many things over the past three years, both painful and useful.  
  
Atop a hill laid the apparent ruins of a sad castle; all left of what was once a sturdy, welcoming home. The gray stone walls lined the sky, breaking free of the trees surrounding it. Down the pebbled path and past the creaking, naked trees scattered on the grim slope of the hill, there stood an iron gate. Outside this gate Remus stood, his hands grasped tightly behind his back. He stood in the brisk wind, his long black overcoat flapping out to his right.  
  
"Remus!" a woman's voice called from down the lane. "Remus, come on! We have to catch the bus!"  
  
The boy blinked, as if he had only just come to life. Then he turned, letting his hands fall to his sides, and glanced back at the ruins behind the gate. He closed his eyes briefly and clenched his fists in his sleeves. A second later, he opened them again, and began walking away from the gate, toward his mother's voice.  
  
Halfway down the lane, he broke into a run and threw his arms around his mother's waist when he had reached her, burying his face in her slightly bulging stomach.  
  
"Oh, don't cry, love," she whispered, wrapping her arms around him and sighing. She blew her stray bangs out of her eyes and looked up into the gray sky. "We must move on, and leave our past behind. Think about the future, Remus. When you don't feel any warmth from the past, look to the future, and I'm sure you'll find some hope."  
  
Remus loosened his hold a little. "But what do I have in the future right now to look forward to?" he asked mournfully, his throat stuck with suppressed tears.  
  
Jacqueline looked back down at her son and smiled as she touched his cheek tenderly. "In just a few more months, you'll be a big brother, Remus. Isn't that something to look forward to? Then you'll have someone to protect as well."  
  
Remus looked back at Jacqueline's stomach, and then pressed his ear to her. Not a moment later, he pulled away, a mock-angry expression on his face. "Mama, he kicked me!"  
  
Jacqueline smiled and shook her head. "Now, Remus, we don't know for sure whether it is a girl or a boy, so don't begin to call it—"  
  
"But Mama! He is a boy! I _know_ he is!"  
  
His mother laughed. "Is this another one of your _special_ powers that you are claiming to have?"  
  
Remus blinked innocently. "Of course, Mama! I'm extra magical!" But then his expression became serious. "And I tell you, I'm going to have a little brother, all to myself, by April."  
  
"Well then. I hope you share this brother of yours with the rest of us...?"  
  
Remus grinned again and nodded. "Yes, I'll share him. _Somebody's_ got to change his nappies, after all!"  
  
They continued down the lane, holding hands and talking amiably.  
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Summer 1969  
  
Remus sat underneath the large beach umbrella on the picnic blanket in his beach shorts, watching the other children running along the edge of the waves. There was a family with two girls and one boy who were trying to race the waves up and down the sand, laughing and draping seaweed in their hair. A little further down the shore, some teenagers were playing beach ball with their transistor radio blaring the latest popular music.  
  
"Why don't you go and play, Remus?" Jacqueline asked him, looking up from where she was breastfeeding Aubrey. "You're far too pale. Some sun will do you good."  
  
Remus looked uneasy. However, he bravely stood up and slowly walked toward the water, glancing back at Jacqueline only once, to see her smiling encouragingly at him. Feeling slightly better, he ran the rest of the way to the waves and let his feet get swallowed by the rushing salt water. It was very cold.  
  
There was a sudden splash, and as Remus blinked rapidly to clear his eyes, he saw a Frisbee floating in the water less than a foot away from his ankles. He picked it up out of the water and glanced around to see where it had come from, and then he flung it back to the teenage girls who were waving at him to get his attention. A girl in a blue bathing suit and shorts caught it in surprise.  
  
"Wow, he's _good_!" one of them exclaimed.  
  
"Eh, that was just a lucky throw, another her friends waved off. "Come, on, throw it to me!"  
  
Remus looked back toward the family who he had been watching before. They had stopped playing in the waves and were now working on a sand castle. After a moment of watching them, the father must have sensed Remus's gaze on them, because he looked up.  
  
"Why hello there!" he called, and Remus tensed, startled. "Would you like to come and join us? You're welcome to," he smiled in a way that only fathers know how to do properly.  
  
The eldest daughter looked up. "Da-ad!" She whined, unhappy that he was inviting a strange boy to join their family activity.  
  
"Hush, Jenna," he replied softly. "Come on, lad; we've even got an extra shovel you can borrow."  
  
Remus hesitantly moved closer, forcing a nervous smile on his face. He took the shovel from the man's hand. "Thank you," he nodded to the man. "You really don't mind?"  
  
The father smiled. "Oh course not! When someone goes to the beach, they should have fun. You didn't look like you were having much fun out there, all alone."  
  
For the next several minutes, Remus happily helped shape the castle, evening collecting shells and driftwood to add as decorations. Fifteen minutes later, he thought he heard someone calling his name, and he looked up to see Dorian walking down the sand dunes in a t-shirt and shorts. He had finally gotten off of work. Remus thanked the sand castle family for letting him play with them and ran to join his father.  
  
To Be Continued....  
  
A/N: Ahh, it feels so good to be posting stories again after so long! This one is a lot different than I've done before. As you could see, it is written in sections that are not necessarily connected. I have done this because many of the things I leave out are the things we already know about, or I just don't find important to put in, as you are able to assume what would have happened afterward.  
  
I'll post as soon as I get enough reviews!


	2. Chapter 1: The First Day

Chapter 1: The First Day  
  
"Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one!'"  
C. S. Lewis  
  
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September 1, 1971  
  
Remus climbed onto the train, looking all around. As several older students glanced in his direction, he turned away nervously. He was not used to being around so many people. Their laughing and shouting hurt his sensitive ears.  
  
"Hey, you!"  
  
Remus gave a small cry and jumped, whirling around to face the much taller youth standing by the door.  
  
The boy raised his eyebrows. "You need a hand with that, kid? It's twice the size of you."  
  
Remus blinked in surprise. "You...you'll help me?"  
  
"Sure. Why not? You seem like a pleasant bloke, and I think it'd be nice to start off the year properly, as I'm Head Boy."  
  
Remus noticed the badge on the dark-haired boy's chest.  
  
"Well anyway, where are you sitting? I hope not too far from here, 'cause then we've got to lug this all the way."  
  
Remus tugged his overlarge sleeves down to cover his hands and hugged his arms around his thin torso as if he was cold, looking up at the boy from underneath his thin bangs. "Er, I haven't gotten a compartment yet."  
  
The Head Boy smiled warmly and patted Remus on the shoulder. "Don't worry, kiddo. I'll help you find one."  
  
Together the two boys carried the trunk past several full compartments, until halfway down the train, they found an empty one. The older boy took the trunk from Remus and lifted it up over his shoulders before shoving it onto the luggage rack above the seat.  
  
"Oh," he said suddenly, turning to Remus, "was there anything in your trunk you needed before I put it up?"  
  
Remus shook his head. "No...well, except my wand and my robes to change into, I guess, but I can stand on the seat when I get them out."  
  
The boy looked relieved. "Alright then." Remembering himself suddenly, he held out his hand. "I'm Mordred Ap'leyon."  
  
"Remus Lupin," Remus replied softly. "Thanks." Then, as his curiosity got the better of him, asked, "Were you named after—?"  
  
Mordred rolled his eyes. "Yeah. My parents have a really messed up sense of humor. You see, my mum's name is Morgaine, and my dad's is Gwydion. My cousins give me a hard enough time about it."  
  
Remus bit his lip. "Oh. Sorry I—"  
  
Mordred grinned, clapping Remus on the back and causing his knees to buckle. "Don't worry about it, Remus! After all, I could have asked about _your_ name. You know the story about Romulus and Remus, the twins who were saved by a she-wolf?"  
  
Remus's face paled when Mordred spoke the last word of his sentence, and he hugged himself again, this time tighter.  
  
Mordred blinked and then bent down so that his face was level with Remus's. "Hey. You alright, kid?" he asked softly in concern.  
  
Remus swallowed and nodded quickly. "Yeah. I'm fine."  
  
Mordred straightened up as a whistle blew outside. "Well, I have to get to my compartment. It was nice meeting you, Remus. I hope you get in my House!"  
  
"What House are you in?"  
  
Mordred smiled. "You'll see. I don't want to make you biased already. You seem to be a good kid, Remus, and I want you to have an open mind about Hogwarts."  
  
"O...okay. Bye then."  
  
"See you!" Mordred left, shutting the door behind him.  
  
A moment later a second whistle blew, and the train lurched forward, sending Remus to the ground. Several loud bumps outside his door alerted him to students in the corridor. The door slid open again, and Remus scrambled back onto his feet.  
  
"You klutz! You could have watched where you were going!"  
  
"It wasn't _my_ fault you were just standing there like a moron when the train started moving!"  
  
Two boys around Remus's age—one with messy black hair and glasses, the other with smooth dark brown hair that fell over his ears—entered the compartment arguing. They were dragging their trunks behind them.  
  
The boy with brown hair spotted Remus first, and he stopped arguing abruptly.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked, in not the nicest tone of voice.  
  
Remus licked his lips and answered, "Remus Lupin. And...and you are...?" He held out his hand.  
  
The boy raised an eyebrow. "Sirius Black." Instead of shaking Remus's offered hand, he took a wand from his robes and pointed it at his trunk. "_Wingardium leviosa_," he commanded, and the trunk rose into the air. It floated up to rest on the luggage rack above the seat opposite Remus's.  
  
The other boy rolled his eyes. "Show off." He spoke the same incantation, and his trunk rose to settle beside Remus's on the other rack. "I'm James Potter," he turned to Remus, and shook Remus's rather limp hand.  
  
"Nice...to meet you...I think."  
  
James laughed, while Sirius just sent a sulky glare toward the two boys. He had set himself down on the seat opposite Remus's and had his arms crossed.  
  
Remus and James sat down on the other seat: James by the door, Remus by the window. The three boys sat in silence for a few minutes, until Remus got slightly irritated. He turned on the seat and stood, unlocking his trunk and reaching inside. Across the compartment, Sirius watched him in bored interest.  
  
The sharp click of the lock on Remus's trunk snapping shut caused the other two boys to jump, and James grinned at Remus when the small boy climbed down again.  
  
"What'd you get out, Remus?" he asked.  
  
"Oh. A book to read." He briefly held out the old book in his hand. "I don't like doing nothing for so long," he added, shrugging.  
  
Remus settled himself back onto the seat, leaning against the wall. As he began to read, he unconsciously drew his legs up onto the seat and against his chest, resting the book on his knees.  
  
Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door, and Sirius got up to answer it. Outside in the corridor was a young witch with a trolley full of snacks to eat.  
  
"Would you like anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked, smiling sweetly at them.  
  
Remus blushed and looked away out the window. "No thanks," he mumbled, though his stomach was actually grumbling hungrily. His father had forgotten to pack him a lunch, and he had no money to spare.  
  
James and Sirius, however, seemed to have plenty of Knuts and Sickles to spend on whatever they wanted, so they bought several assortments of sweets and pasties, and bottles of pumpkin juice.  
  
"You sure you don't want anything, sweetheart?" the witch asked Remus once James and Sirius had paid for their food.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm not hungry. Thanks anyway."  
  
"Well, if you are sure...." The compartment door closed, and he could hear the wheels rolling down to the next compartment.  
  
As some of the smells of James's food wafted toward Remus, his stomach twisted painfully, growling loudly.  
  
"Not hungry?" James asked him with raised eyebrows. He sighed. "Here. I don't like these much anyway." He shoved a pumpkin pasty into Remus's hands.  
  
Remus glanced down at the snack and up at James. "Thanks," he smiled softly.  
  
James waved him off. "No problem. I don't think I could have stood listening to your stomach for the rest of the ride."  
  
Sirius snorted. "I could hear it from here, Lupin. It sounded like a bear."  
  
Remus didn't answer, instead directing his attention to his pasty and forcing himself to eat it as slowly as he could. When he had finished, James gave him a handful of sweets and then a drink of his pumpkin juice.  
  
James glanced at Sirius and then whispered to Remus, "He's so moody. I bet he'll get in Slytherin."  
  
"Slytherin?" Remus repeated, not bothering to keep his voice low, as he didn't appreciate talking about others behind their backs (or rather, directly in front of them). "What's wrong with getting into Slytherin?" he asked, honestly curious. His mother and father had never told him much about the school, other than it was the best school in Britain, and that the new Headmaster's name was Albus Dumbledore.  
  
"_What's wrong with Slytherin_?" both Sirius and James burst out at the same time in shock and disgust.  
  
Sirius glared at James before continuing. "Have you never heard of the Houses or something? You're Muggleborn, right?"  
  
Remus shook his head. "No, my mum and dad are witch and wizard. Why?"  
  
"You're kidding. Well, Slytherin is the House where all the future dark wizards go. My Uncle Alphard told me that if Grindelwald had gone to Hogwarts, he would have been a Slytherin, no hands down. Besides, I don't think you'll have to worry about getting into Slytherin. You are reeking of goodness, as I see it." He rolled his eyes.  
  
"And what House do you think you'll get sorted into, Black?" James asked shortly.  
  
Sirius turned to face James. "Me? I _hope_ to get into Gryffindor. My parents seem to think it's the worst House, so I'm all for it."  
  
"But why would you want to get into that House because your parents don't like it?" Remus asked in confusion. He always tried to make his parents proud, though he never felt he could ever be good enough, no matter how much they told him he was fine the way he was.  
  
Sirius narrowed his eyes and didn't answer. Instead he crossed his arms and resumed his previous activity of apparent sulking (glaring at the window while his body was slouched on the seat).  
  
"Your face'll freeze that way if you aren't careful," James warned scornfully. "Then you'll be a right ugly chap. A horrible monster pretending to be a normal wizard! Don'tcha think so, Remus?"  
  
There was a minute of complete silence. Remus was staring out of the window as well, with a small frown on his face. "You shouldn't call anyone a monster, James," he said finally.  
  
"What?" James yelped. "But he is a monster! You should have seen him in the hall earlier! Jeez, I wouldn't be surprised if he's a werewolf in disguise or something!"  
  
"I am not a werewolf!" Sirius jumped off of his seat angrily, clenching his fists.  
  
"Stop it!" Remus shouted sharply, his voice higher than normal. "Just stop it," he whispered when they had both turned to him in surprise.  
  
"Remus?"  
  
"Leave me alone, please." He sat back against his corner on the seat and set his book on his knees again.  
  
The ride passed in silence for a while. Remus's eyes kept flickering up from his book to stare out the window at the countryside that was speeding by. The blurring colors threw Remus back into a memory that should have never happened.

: : : : : :

_Fall colors flashed all around, spinning dangerously. An excruciating pain wrenched at Remus's side, blinding him to the spinning colors. Screams could be heard in the distance. Remus could smell blood. Someone's heart beat loudly, accompanied by a strange metallic sound for every other beat. The crunching of dry leaves was scattered and rushed, as if someone was dashing around in a leaf-covered clearing._

__  
: : : : : :

Sirius, who had also been staring out of the window, noticed that Remus's eyes had a rather glazed look to them. But then his eyelids fluttered softly...before dropping down completely. Sirius watched as the book in Remus's hand slowly tilted toward him and away from Remus. As the train turned a bend, the book slipped out of Remus's hand, hitting the floor of the compartment.  
  
James looked up when he heard the dull thud. The first thing he saw was Sirius staring at the corner where Remus was sitting. Turning to look at Remus, James's eyebrows rose.  
  
Remus seemed to be fast asleep on the seat beside him. His body was slouched limply back against the back cushion, his head resting against the wall by the window. One of his legs slid sideways on the seat, while the other leaned on the wall to stay up. Now that Remus wasn't in control of his face, James realized that he looked haggard and pale, not to mention several years younger than he should look.  
  
Sirius bent forward and picked up the book, glancing at the title before setting it on the seat beside Remus.  
  
"You think he's alright?" he asked James in a tone that James never would have guessed him to even possess.  
  
He shrugged. "I don't have the slightest. I've known him as long as you, remember?"  
  
Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "It may sound weird, but I think that we did something to make him like this. It...it makes me feel as if I'm acting the way my family does. It's sickening."  
  
"Your family is really that awful?"  
  
"Yeah. They're bloody obsessed about purebloods and all that crap."  
  
"So what do you think is wrong with _him_?" he gestured at Remus. "I mean, he got so...worked up about something we said."  
  
"I dunno. Maybe he's scared of werewolves?" Sirius shrugged. "It wouldn't surprise me if he is. He doesn't strike me as the kind of kid who is terribly brave, but then again, I don't know him too well either."  
  
The rest of the train ride passed in mostly silence, except for James and Sirius's quiet talking; they did not wish to wake Remus, as it looks like he could use all the rest he could get. As the sky outside melted from a light blue to a purple-blue, James glanced over at Remus's sleeping form.  
  
"Do you think we should wake him?" he asked Sirius. The two of them had become quite fond of each other during the ride, after they found that they had so many things in common with each other. Sirius still had the tendency to say rude things when he didn't realize it, but that was to be expected; after all, he couldn't suddenly forget everything he had been taught his whole life in the span of one train ride.  
  
Sirius tilted his head slightly to look at Remus. "Yeah. I don't suppose he'd be too happy if we left him here when the train stopped at the station. And besides; he still needs to change into his robes."  
  
"Well, I would have woken him up earlier when we changed, but you told me not to!"  
  
"Hey, I never said anything about it being anyone's fault—I was just stating a fact." Sirius frowned at James before standing up and stepping over to stand in front of Remus. "I really hope he's not one of those people who wig out when they're woken up," he said as he reached out an arm. "Hey, Lupin; Lupin, wake up," he urged, shaking Remus's shoulder slightly.  
  
Remus's head lolled on his chest, and he made a small whimpering sound in his throat.  
  
"Aw, come _on_," Sirius sighed, and shook Remus more roughly. "Lupin! We're almost to Hogwarts! Wake up!"  
  
Remus's head accidentally connected with the wall, and he yelped and snapped awake.  
  
"Oops, sorry," Sirius grimaced. "We're almost at the station, I think. You should get changed now."  
  
Remus looked sleepily up at Sirius and James, his hair a mess of lazy brown curls, his eyes like liquid silver mixed with the early dawn sky. "Mm...'lright. Thanks for waking me up," he murmured, sitting up straighter and stretching a little. Then he climbed up on the seat to get out his robes and pull them over his clothes, after removing the large sweater that he wore over a thin white t-shirt.  
  
Shortly after he was finished, the train began to slow.  
  
Outside, it was quite dark, and Remus watched as several students tripped over their feet as they tried to step off of the platform. Remus, however, could see almost perfectly because of his Lycanthropy. He had been separated from James and Sirius soon after leaving the compartment, so he simply followed the others down the lane to where a very tall person stood, holding up an old lantern.  
  
"Firs' years!" the person bellowed, and Remus winced. "Firs' years, over here!"  
  
The taller students separated themselves from the smaller ones, heading over to many horseless carriages that stood waiting for them. Remus joined a short and slightly plump fair-haired boy in his descent toward the bellowing man. When the other boy stumbled slightly over a loose rock, Remus instinctively grabbed his elbow to steady him.  
  
The boy looked up at Remus with watery blue eyes. "Thanks," he said gratefully. "Are you a first year, too?"  
  
Remus nodded, and then, remembering that the boy couldn't see him quite as well, he replied, "Yeah, I am."  
  
"Ah. Well, I'm Peter. Peter Pettigrew." Peter continued walking, although he glanced at Remus every once in a while.  
  
"My name's Remus Lupin," Remus responded automatically. He kept an eye on the group ahead of them, though he didn't want to get too close to the rest of the group.  
  
After a few minutes of silence, Peter spoke up again. "Erm, Remus?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Are...are you nervous about going to Hogwarts? I mean, even just a little?" Remus could hear the hint of embarrassment in Peter's voice, while at the same time he felt a rush of gratitude toward Peter for indirectly admitting that he was nervous about this big change.  
  
"Yeah, I'm nervous." He laughed hesitantly. "Actually, I'm rather terrified, come to think about it."  
  
"Really? Me too!" Peter already sounded less afraid.  
  
Remus nodded. "I mean, I've never been away from my parents for such a long period of time...."  
  
"Me neither," Peter replied. Remus glanced at him and saw the shy smile on his face. He had a feeling he would get along quite well with this boy. He seemed so nice, and Remus was sure that once they all became used to Hogwarts, Peter would grow more comfortable.  
  
The group ahead of them stopped, and they came up behind to see what was going on. Apparently they had come to the edge of a large lake, and were going to cross it via small four-person boats to the castle on the other side.  
  
Remus and Peter climbed into an empty boat, and were shortly joined by two girls; one with curly blond hair in a bob cut, the other with shoulder-length brown hair. The brown-haired one was rather tall, and Remus was sure that she'd be almost five inches taller than him if they were standing beside one another.  
  
As soon as they were all situated inside the boat, there was a little jolt, and they began to float across the lake.  
  
Remus knew it would sound so clichéd if he were to say it aloud, but the view was truly amazing. From his current position in the center of the lake, he could see the reflection of the castle walls and flickering lights on the surface of the water nearer to the opposite shore, and the quiet murmur of the water slapping up against the boats mixed with the other children's soft chatting only added to the atmosphere. A cool breeze blew over them, reminding them that it was still summer, though soon autumn would come and put summer to sleep for another year.  
  
The boats passed underneath a curtain of ivy that hid an entrance to a cave where the boats were docked and tied to assigned poles. Remus lent Peter a hand while getting out of the boat, and the two of them followed the others up the stone steps. The group stopped at the top of the stairs, where there was a large door that could have allowed a twenty-foot person to walk through easily.  
  
Ten minutes later, after the new Headmistress had spoken with them, they were all standing before the entire school, with an old wizard's talking hat lying on a three-legged stool a few feet in front of them. Professor McGonagall—the Headmistress—unrolled a scroll of parchment and began to read names off of the list.  
  
"Black, Sirius!"  
  
Remus watched as Sirius stepped forward and placed the hat over his head when he sat down on the stool. He looked quite ridiculous, Remus had to admit, since the hat was far to large for the dark-haired boy's head, and it slipped down his forehead, covering his eyes.  
  
After waiting several dozen seconds, the hat exclaimed, "GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
While the Gryffindor table exploded with cheers, the Slytherin table also made quite a commotion as well. Remus was sure he heard someone shout, "_What_? That traitorous little brat! Ohh, he's going to get it when Auntie hears about this!"  
  
However, there was no time to ponder this, as Professor McGonagall continued with the list of names.  
  
"Dalton, Sharon!" The tall, brown-haired girl who had been in Remus and Peter's boat stepped up, and soon after joined the Gryffindor table.  
  
"Dane, Lucille!" The other girl with the bob cut made a face, hissing, "_Lucy_!" and was sorted into Gryffindor.  
  
Just as Remus was wondering why so many people were getting into that House, the next person, Elizabeth Denham, was put into Ravenclaw. Then there was another Gryffindor girl ('Evans, Lily!"), two Hufflepuff boys ("Ethan, Louis!" and "Gudgeon, David!"), and then it was Remus's turn. He bit his lip as he sat down, and the hat fell over his head just as it had done Sirius, though one of Remus's eyes was left uncovered as the hat fell slightly sideways.  
  
"Ahh, _well_, now. How very interesting..." a voice spoke into Remus's ear, and his eyes widened. "No need to be afraid of me, lad," the voice assured him. "I'm naught but a hat on your head. So. What House shall I put _you_ in, eh?"  
  
Remus unconsciously glanced over at the Gryffindor table, where he could see Sirius watching him with a rather indifferent expression.  
  
"Ah, so you'd like to be in Gryffindor? You think your other friend will get put there, so you want to risk being with moody Mr. Black...?" Remus could almost hear the hat chuckle.  
  
_He's...he's not my friend_, Remus thought slowly. _But_..._I_..._well, if there's a chance that we could be friends_....  
  
"And you want to keep your little secret safe from them, yes?"  
  
_How do you know_—?!  
  
"I know everything about you, dear boy. And I know _just_ the House you belong in. Though some of its features may not be your strong points, sometimes what a person really needs is friends, and I know that is where you shall find friends worthy to spend your life with and love you for who you are."  
  
Remus was very confused, and he jumped when the hat suddenly shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
He stumbled over the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Sirius, still white and shaking.  
  
"Congrats, Lupin," Sirius clapped him on the back. "Now let's see if Potter gets in...."  
  
They had to wait through two more people (one of which was Peter, who sat down next to Remus as he was sorted) before James would be called.  
  
"Potter, James!"  
  
James stepped up to the stool, not a trace of fear on his face, and the hat was on his head no more than four seconds before he, too, was sorted into Gryffindor along with the other three boys. Remus didn't catch the next two people to get sorted, though he knew they had both gotten into Slytherin (it was rather difficult to miss what the hat shouted out to the hall, after all).  
  
They were nearing the end of the alphabet, for which Remus was very grateful, as he was quite hungry again. Finally there were only three people left. Geoffrey Spudmore became a Hufflepuff, Spencer Trevelian a Ravenclaw, and then Madeline Wood was pronounced the last addition to Hufflepuff.  
  
The man Remus presumed to be Professor Dumbledore stood up, and the Hall became quiet.  
  
"Welcome to Hogwarts, everyone...though for some of you it is not the first time you have been here. I shall say more after you have satisfied your hunger, as I can see many of you might just eat the silverware if you aren't provided with food soon enough." He smiled widely at the students, and Remus couldn't help but grin back; this was a man he could trust.... He wasn't quite sure how he knew, but he did, and that was all he needed to know for now.  
  
Remus scooped a large spoonful of buttered noodles onto his plate, and then he took a few slices of chicken. Looking around, he had Peter pass him the green beans, and then the steamed carrots.  
  
"I can't believe you're actually eating that," James said around a mouthful of steak. He had absolutely no vegetables on his plate, Remus noticed.  
  
"Maybe...maybe he needs to eat that stuff," Peter offered hesitantly. "You know, for his health. My mom said that people who aren't well need to eat lots of greens and other kinds of vegetables so they don't get even worse...and I don't mean anything by this, Remus," he said apologetically, "but you're sort of peaky-looking."  
  
Sirius laughed, "Haha, what a gentleman!" He smirked at Remus. "You better eat up, Lupin, or you might collapse going up the stairs!"  
  
Remus ignored him and silently ate his dinner. Maybe it was a mistake to have wanted to be in this House. Perhaps he would have done better in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, or even Slytherin, though he found he didn't like the looks of most of the people over at that table.  
  
When they had all finished their desserts, Dumbledore stood up once again.  
  
"I have a few notices for all of you. First of all, I would like to congratulate the new Head Boy and Girl of this year: Mordred Ap'leyon and Charlotte Keitch. They have done a magnificent job so far in school, and I know they will continue to do so."  
  
Remus saw Mordred stand up, surprisingly, from a few seats down at the Gryffindor table. Also, a tall girl with shoulder-length blond ringlets stood up from her seat at the Slytherin table.  
  
"On more serious matters," Dumbledore continued, "you might notice tomorrow that a new tree has been planted on the grounds...."  
  
Dumbledore's speech lasted for another several minutes as he explained new rules and then introduced new teachers. Finally, just as Remus felt he could listen no longer, Dumbledore dismissed them to bed.  
  
"I claim this bed!" James proclaimed fifteen minutes later in their dormitory, falling dramatically onto the bed that was on the left side of the south window.  
  
"That's fine; it's already been claimed for you," Remus pointed out, and the other three boys noticed that their trunks had been brought up and set by each of the beds. On James's left was Peter's bed; on the right side of the south window was Sirius's bed; and then Remus's bed on the right side of that. The bathroom door was not far from the foot of Peter's bed.  
  
Remus was so tired that he didn't even bother undressing before toppling onto his bed. He was fast asleep within moments.  
  
To Be Continued....  
  
A/N: Wow, I was surprised at how many reviews I got for the prologue! Thank you so much! Also, some of you may have been confused before; Remus was born in 1960 in this story. I forgot to mention that last chapter, and that may have confused a few people. I hope that clears a few things up.  
  
I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, but...review, please! 


	3. Chapter 2: First Week

Chapter 2: First Week  
  
"I don't like the world, Mama. It's not pretty. I won't draw it pretty."  
- _My Name is Asher Lev_, by Chaim Potok  
  
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September 2, 1971  
  
The first day of classes wasn't too bad. The four Gryffindor boys stayed together in case they got lost (which they did, on more than one occasion), even though Sirius didn't seem to enjoy hanging around Peter and Remus as much. Remus couldn't understand what the other boy had against him; it wasn't as if he had done anything to annoy Sirius...yet.  
  
In addition to getting lost, Remus had also run into Mordred at one point during the day while he was in the library.  
  
Remus had just about jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand tap his shoulder while he was sitting at one of the tables, flipping through a book. He swung around so quickly that his hair snapped against his forehead.  
  
"Whoa, there," he heard a laugh. It was then that he realized that it was Mordred.  
  
Suddenly shy, he forced a smile and replied quietly, "Hello."  
  
Mordred sighed and sat down. "Sorry for freaking you out like that. Every time I greet you, I always seem to do that. Granted, I've only done it twice...." He laughed. "But anyway, I just wanted to welcome you to Gryffindor. I was watching when you got sorted last night," he smiled in a brotherly sort of way.  
  
Remus nodded, but didn't say anything, unsure of what he was supposed to do.  
  
Noticing Remus's unease, Mordred changed the subject. "So, how have you been adjusting so far? You getting along with the boys in your dorm?"  
  
Remus shrugged a little. "Erm, they're okay, I guess. One of them doesn't seem to like me very much, but the other two are really nice."  
  
"Well, that's good. But I'll warn you now; just give it a couple of months, and you'll all be ready to tear each other's throats out, even if you're good friends, because just being around the same people for so long can really get to a person." He grinned. "Believe me, it's like having three or four other brothers that are always around!"  
  
Remus frowned. "Is that a bad thing? I don't...I don't really understand what you mean."  
  
"Oh, are you an only child?" Mordred asked in curiosity.  
  
"No...I've got a baby brother...he's about two right now."  
  
"Ah. I see. Well, when he's older, you'll see what I mean. When they're little, you're too busy thinking about how sweet they are to get annoyed with them...."  
  
Remus laughed slightly.  
  
Just then, the bell signaling the end of the period rang, and Remus jumped up from his seat, shoving the books on the table into his bag. When he realized that he had no idea where he had to go, he let Mordred give him directions to his class.  
  
Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all, he thought as he entered the classroom and sat down next to Peter.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------  
  
September 4, 1971; Evening  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
Remus stopped by the portrait opening and turned around to face Peter. "I...have to go home for a bit, Peter. My...aunt is ill, and I have to see her."  
  
"Oh." Peter seemed unsure of what to say.  
  
"Tell the others for me, would you?" Remus asked him. "If they happen to wonder where I am, that is."  
  
"Ah. Sure. I hope your aunt gets better. See you, Remus." Peter smiled comfortingly and raised his hand a little in farewell.  
  
Once Remus was out in the corridor, he breathed a sigh of relief. That could have been a lot worse, he mused. Good thing it was only Peter, and not Sirius. Sirius would have known he was lying, since Sirius was an expert liar himself. They'd only been in school for four days, and Remus knew that much about Sirius already.  
  
: : : : : :  
  
"You should just lie down and get some rest before we head out," Madam Pomfrey told Remus. "You still have a while to wait, and somehow I don't think that you want to wait it out all alone outside."  
  
Remus sat down on the edge of one of the hospital beds, but he was far too restless to lie down. He had so much pent-up energy inside, and the spirit of the wolf inside of him wanted that energy. He could feel it, just on the border of his awareness, trying to break free for the night. About an hour later, he unconsciously lay down and fell asleep for a while before he felt someone shaking him awake.  
  
"It's time, Remus," Madam Pomfrey whispered to him, helping him up. He didn't even notice the use of his first name instead of Madam Pomfrey's usual formalness.  
  
The two of them headed outside, where Remus could see a large tree in the distance: the willow Dumbledore had spoken to the students about. Its branches moved to and fro without wind to guide it. As they drew nearer, Madam Pomfrey found a stray branch on the ground and managed to poke the trunk of the tree.  
  
When the tree stopped moving, Remus stared at her in awe. "How did you do that?" he asked.  
  
She showed him a small knot on the tree as they climbed down a hidden opening in the trunk. "All you need to do is press that knot, and the tree will stop moving for long enough that it gives you time to get in and out safely. I'm sure I do not need to even warn you about telling anyone else about that knot...."  
  
Remus nodded. "Yes, I understand."  
  
They walked down an earthen tunnel that was so low that Madam Pomfrey had to stoop to walk through it, and if Remus had held out his elbows, they would have just barely touched the walls. After several minutes of walking, the tunnel began to rise, and then a small opening came into view. It appeared to be a trapdoor of some kind.  
  
Madam Pomfrey unlocked the door and helped Remus up. "This door will be locked from the outside so you cannot get out when you are a wolf," she spoke to him as he leaned back down through the open door to look at her. "Once the moon sets again, I will come to bring you back to the castle. All of the doors leading out of this building are bolted shut as well, for the safety of the people of Hogsmeade. Will you be alright for now, dear?"  
  
Remus bit his lip and just nodded. "I'll be fine," he said softly. Then he stood up so that all Madam Pomfrey could see of him was his shins and feet.  
  
Madam Pomfrey pulled the door shut and then slid the bolt into place. She whispered a quiet unbreakable charm over it, before she turned and left through the tunnel.  
  
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September 5, 1971, (4:03 am full moon rises)  
  
Remus sat nervously on the edge of the four-poster bed, twisting his fingers together distractedly, his small feet hanging several inches above the ground. His eyes kept flickering toward one of the boarded up windows across from him. A soft creak from the corner by the door caused him to start, and he pushed his sweaty, light brown hair out of his eyes as he jerked around to see what the noise was.  
  
It was nothing.  
  
Remus jumped off of the bed and walked over to the door anyway and opened it slightly. All was silent in the rest of the house. Feeling increasingly antsy, he left the room. Tripping down a few steps in his nervousness, he stumbled into the main room. He almost fell to the ground as a wave of pain shot through his seemingly fragile body.  
  
Remus shuddered and gave a little sob. "I'm scared," he moaned to the air. "I don't want to become a monster! It hurts so much...." He sat down and curled up on the only wooden chair in the room. He tried to imagine his mother beside him, comforting him.  
  
He pictured her wrapping her arms gently around his shoulders and kissing the top of his head. Even as Remus went through yet another spasm, he held her image in his head.  
  
Then, as the clock on the wall struck 4:03 am, Remus screamed and crumpled to the floor. He twisted and writhed as fur began replacing his clothing and skin, and his limbs started to shift their form. His eyes turned gold, and he furiously tore at his stomach, neck and face with his sharpening nails. Not five minutes later, a small wolf had replaced the boy, and it was snarling at its unfamiliar surroundings.  
  
Remus leapt at the boarded-up window, snapping his jaws and extending his claws. However, instead of hitting the window, he was swung around and crashed into the wall as one of the protection spells around the house was activated. Disorientated, Remus picked himself up again, shaking his head roughly.  
  
As the moon set many hours later, the wolf shifted back into its human form. Remus rolled onto his back so that he wasn't lying on top of his broken arm any more. He gave a humorless laugh, which sounded more like a cough, and stared up at the ceiling.  
  
"Child, sleep now.... Enter your world of nightmares—Your hell, it seems. Leave this damned world.... Go to the place where The moon haunts your tired face, And the wolves prowl in the Woods around you. Scream in the dark, Stay away from the warm light. Child, sleep now...." He sang very softly, warping his mother's lullaby into morbid words.  
  
Soon the darkness creeping along the edges of his vision blanketed him completely, and his head lolled onto the wooden floor.  
  
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September 6, 1971  
  
Remus opened his eyes to all white, and he would have groaned and rolled over if it hadn't been for the fact that his left arm ached terribly when he shifted on the bed. Speaking of which...where was he?  
  
He forced himself to sit up halfway, and he looked around. White curtains greeted him, blocking out any view of the room he was in. However, he could risk a guess.  
  
"Madam Pomfrey?" he called, leaning back down onto the pillow. A moment later, he heard hurried footsteps, and the curtains were pulled aside.  
  
"Dear me, Mr. Lupin! Whyever did you not warn me about how bad this would be after a transformation?" The school's matron looked quite distressed as she lifted Remus's arm and began to rub a healing ointment onto it.  
  
"Well...it usually isn't that bad," he mumbled. "Usually I just get beat up a little, and get a few cuts, but that's it."  
  
"Hmm. Perhaps it was the change to a new place?" she offered. "Do you have any other hurts?  
  
"Erm...." He tried moving his legs, and as a flash of pain went through one of them, he pointed to it. "That one hurts."  
  
Several minutes later, Madam Pomfrey instructed Remus to try getting up; he couldn't spend all year in the hospital wing, now, could he?  
  
He pushed himself up off of the bed, but a second later he wished he hadn't. Though he made it to the point of standing straight, his body did not stop there. He simply keeled right over, falling painfully onto his face. His balance did not appear to have woken along with the rest of him, unfortunately.  
  
Madam Pomfrey quickly helped him back onto the bed and began to bend his legs back and forth to ease his joints a little faster. After a few minutes, she had him try again. This time, Remus managed to stand still and then take four steps before almost losing his balance. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, Remus was able to leave the infirmary and head up to the Gryffindor tower to get changed for the day.  
  
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September 7, 1971  
  
"_Tarantallegra_!"  
  
The spell soared through the air and sank into Remus's stomach.  
  
At first nothing happened, but then his right foot began to tap rhythmically, and soon his left foot had joined his right. Not five seconds later, his legs and feet were completely out of his control. They seemed to be doing an Irish jig, or something very similar.  
  
"What—?!" Remus exclaimed with wide eyes. "I can't—I can't stop!"  
  
Several people were laughing.  
  
"I didn't know you knew quickstep, Lupin!" someone called out mockingly.  
  
Remus felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment. He tried to grab his wand from the floor where he had dropped it in surprise after being hit by the spell, but his knees refused to bend the way he wished. Instead, he merely danced his way about the corridor.  
  
The problem was, no one seemed to want to help him. The Slytherins he expected no more from, but there were fellow Gryffindors amongst the crowd as well. However, they appeared to be finding the show too amusing to step in and lend a hand to the strange first year boy who was too quiet for his own good.  
  
As his legs did several particularly elaborate steps, spinning his body in a circle, Remus's sharp ears picked up two familiar voices in the crowd. He turned his head and saw James, Sirius, and Peter standing behind two third year Hufflepuffs. James and Sirius were chuckling and clapping, with Peter hovering just to the side and a little behind them with a nervous expression on his face.  
  
Remus's legs decided to turn sharply at that moment, and his face twisted in pain as the wound on his leg from two nights before stung piercingly. He couldn't help crying out in pain, and as his feet picked up pace, his already sore muscles began to throb.  
  
Sirius halted midway through clapping when he caught the expression on Remus's face, and in that moment of his awareness, he heard the small cry. He seized James's wrist.  
  
"Hang on," he said sharply. "Potter, that spell is actually hurting him. Did you see his face?"  
  
"No...but I suppose we should—"  
  
Sirius pushed forward and withdrew his wand. "_Finite Incantatem_," he ordered.  
  
Caught off-guard by the suddenly returned control of his legs, Remus stumbled and crashed to the ground, face-first. He hit his left elbow and right palm harshly on the stone, scraping them slightly. His left arm collapsed under him, as his freshly grown bones had not the strength to hold him.  
  
Sirius and James approached Remus, though Sirius—who was closer to begin with—reached him first and flipped him over.  
  
"Lupin, you alri—?" He gasped sharply at Remus's pale face and ragged breathing. Remus was shaking, and he had broken out in a cold sweat.  
  
"Remus?" James asked, softly slapping Remus's face with the back of his hand as the small boy's eyes began to roll upward.  
  
Remus gave a short gasp, and his eyes returned to focus again, but a second later rolled completely back in his head. His head dropped limply over Sirius's wrist.  
  
The crowd meanwhile had grown nervous, and had begun to disperse. And not a moment later, a new voice, stern and commanding, broke into their midst.  
  
"What's going on here? Break it up, break it up! This better have not been another fight—you know how I don't enjoy taking points...." Mordred stopped abruptly as he saw the three first-year boys on the ground. He gasped and rushed over to them, crouching down by Remus's side.  
  
"What happened to him?" he asked in concern.  
  
"Er, a Slytherin hexed him," James replied, looking up at the Head Boy.  
  
Mordred gently eased Remus from Sirius's hold and stood up with the unconscious boy gathered in his arms. "With what? And why didn't anyone stop the person?"  
  
Sirius and James looked distinctly uncomfortable.  
  
"Well, you see," Sirius began, "it didn't look like it was hurting him much—"  
  
"And he did look rather funny—"  
  
"_What hex_?" Mordred pushed as they walked down the corridor. He was growing increasingly irritated with the two boys.  
  
"_Tarantallegra_," James replied.  
  
"What? But all that does is cause the victim to dance a quickstep. How is it that Remus looks like he's about to die?"  
  
"_Die_?!" Both boys exclaimed.  
  
"But he's not going to, is he?" James asked hurriedly, his voice cracking in the middle of his sentence.  
  
"Of course not," Mordred snapped. "But I still want to know why he was affected this way—have you noticed if he's seemed ill lately?"  
  
"Well, he was gone two days ago—to visit his aunt or something, I think," Sirius replied, "and when he got back, he looked really exhausted."  
  
"Hmm," Mordred frowned thoughtfully.  
  
They turned a corner and came into view of the hospital wing doors.  
  
"Madam Pomfrey!" Mordred called, as they entered the ward.  
  
The school nurse appeared from the other side of the room, where she had been tending to a student who had green sprouts growing out of her ears. "What is wrong with—oh! Well, bring him here. Yes; lay him on that one. Now, Mordred, what happened?"  
  
Mordred relayed the story Sirius and James had told, and Madam Pomfrey inspected Remus carefully.  
  
"Thank you. Now if you would all move along, I must tend to my patient."  
  
"But Madam Pomfrey!" James protested.  
  
"No buts! Out! Mr. Lupin has no need of your assistance at the moment." She shooed the three of them out through the door. "And don't you even _think_ of protesting, Mr. Ap'leyon. I am still your superior, so you must follow my rules!"  
  
The moment the boys were out of the door, Madam Pomfrey returned to Remus's side and pulled the curtain around three of the sides of his bed. Then she pushed the sleeve of his left arm up past his elbow. Remus's elbow and part of his forearm were swollen, so Madam Pomfrey spread a little of a soothing cream over the flushed skin. As she was putting the jar back on the table beside the bed, she noticed a few drops of blood seeping through Remus's trouser leg, just below his knee. She gently pushed the pant leg up to his kneecap, and saw that a wound had been reopened. Sighing, Madam Pomfrey healed the cut and spread a protective potion over it to keep it from reopening.  
  
Remus moaned and shifted on the bed, before slowly opening his eyes.  
  
"Madam Pomfrey?"  
  
"Hush, child, you'll be fine," she assured him, stroking his hair. Remus sighed and leaned back on the pillow. "Just rest for a few minutes, and then you may leave."  
  
The small boy nodded and closed his eyes. Two minutes later, he was fast asleep.  
  
Madam Pomfrey sighed. She would have to watch out for this boy; he didn't seem to know how to take care of himself; either that, or he didn't care enough to do so.  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
Mordred wanted to know what was going on, and he wasn't very happy about being forced out of the infirmary like that. Remus's friends may have been too young to have even noticed the unusualness of the situation, but Mordred certainly wasn't. And that was exactly why he was heading up to the Headmaster's office, intending on voicing his suspicions (even though he hadn't actually gotten to the point of suspecting anything).  
  
"May I help you, Mr. Ap'leyon?" Professor Dumbledore asked him cheerfully as Mordred closed the office door behind him.  
  
Mordred relayed the incident of a few minutes previous, and for a short while, Dumbledore simply sat there, carefully observing his student. Then he spoke.  
  
"Mordred, I would like you to understand that some people do not wish for their personal lives to be known to others."  
  
"I understand, Professor, but...."  
  
"Perhaps we should wait until when Mr. Lupin is healed before we discuss this," Dumbledore suggested lightly, although Mordred could hear the warning in his voice.  
  
Mordred sighed. "Alright. But I am only concerned about him. I don't mean him any harm by wanting to know what is wrong."  
  
"Yes, I can see that. But Mr. Lupin may not be able to see that. He has not had the best of experiences during his life, and we may be doing more harm than good by delving into his personal background."  
  
Mordred frowned, but he nodded. "Will I be told when he is well?"  
  
"Of course. And then we shall figure something out. If Mr. Lupin is as trusting of you as I believe him to be, then it may be an asset for you to know of the situation. If not...well, than I would greatly appreciate it if you just let things be as they are. I know I can trust you to understand where we are coming from with this," Dumbledore told him solemnly.  
  
"Of course, sir."  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
"Do you feel comfortable telling Mordred of your Lycanthropy?" Dumbledore asked Remus.  
  
Remus shifted nervously on the hospital bed, playing with the sheet between his fingers. "I don't know him that well, though. I mean..._can_ I trust him?"  
  
Dumbledore tilted his head a little, as if in thought. "I have been his teacher for six years, and now his Headmaster. I can truthfully say that Mordred would not turn on your for what you are. I cannot promise you what he feels about werewolves; there has never been a situation before now that has called for his opinion on them. However, if you do choose to tell him, I know that he would keep your secret."  
  
Remus looked very unsure of himself, but in the end, he replied, "I'll tell him. Something's telling me that I won't regret it, and I really hope it isn't lying to me. But...would you tell him for me? I'm not sure I can do it."  
  
Dumbledore called Mordred into the room.  
  
To Be Continued....  
  
A/N: I am _so_ sorry about the delay in updating. For the first two days after posting that last chapter, I simply didn't feel like working on the story, and then—can you believe it—I completely forgot about working on it! Heh, silly me. I was so busy with other things that I forgot. I remembered about halfway through the week, when someone mentioned it in an email, and then I found myself unable to write anything again. (bloody writer's block) But today I finally forced myself to sit down and write that one little scene that had to be put in (because that's all it was...one scene that I couldn't be bothered to write, while everything else was finished!).  
  
So there you go, and I hope to have the next one up as soon as possible. (I want to get out of their first year, and on to when they're older and more interesting to write about!) 


	4. Chapter 3: The Dangers of Simply Going t...

Chapter 3: The Dangers of Simply Going to School at Hogwarts  
  
"All say, 'How hard it is that we have to die'—a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live." - Mark Twain  
  
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September 15, 1971  
  
Remus was just wandering around the castle corridors, trying to remember his way around so that he was less likely to get lost when he didn't have time to find his way out again, and he was startled by what sounded like several logs toppling down stairs. He ran around the corner to see what the sound was, and he came upon a small man with a wicked grin etched on his face. It was the poltergeist Remus had heard someone complaining about: Peeves.  
  
Peeves froze in the act of hurling a mop down the stone steps and instead stared at Remus. An expression of delight came over his face.  
  
"Ooh, what fun!" he exclaimed, floating over to Remus. "An ickle firsty, all alone in the corridors!" He tossed another cleaning tool—this time a bucket full of sponges and soap bottles—down the steps. "What does this little tyke call himself, HMM?" he finished loudly, peering closely into Remus's wide-eyed face.  
  
"R-Remus Lupin...." He took a step backwards.  
  
Peeves's eyes lit up. "_Lupin_!" He fairly shrieked out the word. Then he began cackling in a high-pitched voice, rolling over in the air. "Peeves has heard about Lupin, yes he has!" He made a rude sound with his noise. "Loony, they say! Loony loony..." he was having great fun trying out the word. Remus just stared on in shock; amazed anyone could be that loud and rude.  
  
"Loony loopy Lupin, I say! Hehe, loopy, yes!" He flew off, cackling to himself. "Loony, loopy Lupin! Loony, loopy Lupin!" His voice faded away.  
  
Remus turned around and returned the way he had come, deciding he'd had enough exploring for that day. If anyone was loony, he thought to himself, it was Peeves.  
  
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September 25, 1971  
  
Remus held tightly onto his broom, his knuckles white. He wasn't terribly fond of heights, and he had never ridden a broom before, as his family had always lived near Muggles. (He couldn't remember if he'd ever had a toy broomstick during the time when he lived in the castle, but even if he had, it only would have gone a foot or so off of the ground.)  
  
"When I blow my whistle, you are to kick off the ground to take off!" Madam Hooch—the young and spunky flying teacher—ordered. "Three...two...one—!" With a loud _fweep_! She blew her whistle, and everyone rose into the air.  
  
Remus had shot up several feet, to his own horror, and he was having trouble keeping his broom steady. He risked a glance around and saw that James and Sirius seemed to be having the time of their lives, shooting all over the place. Peter's broom didn't seem to like him very much, but he had managed to keep it steady enough to steer himself around in the air.  
  
Remus, however, was not having as much luck. His broom, seemingly having enough of him, began to buck around and rise higher.  
  
"I _knew_ something bad was going to happen! Ohhh, no...." He grasped the handle as tightly as he could, but even so, he could feel himself slipping.  
  
He had no idea of what was going on around him; all he knew was that he was terrified out of his wits at the moment. Then, the horrifying happened, and he felt the broom leave his grasp. He smashed into someone on his way down, getting tangled in his or her limbs and dragging the unsuspecting person down with him to the ground where they both blacked out before someone could get to them.  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
"Ugnh...." Remus opened his eyes and sat up in bed.  
  
"Remus! You're awake!" he heard Peter exclaim happily, and soon both Peter and James had joined him by his bedside.  
  
"What happened?" Remus asked them, frowning a little.  
  
"Ohh, it was so cool-looking!" James began in delight. "Your broom was knocking you around for a while, and Hooch was freaking out, and then it suddenly threw you off—"  
  
"You went flying into the air!" Peter added excitedly.  
  
"And you started falling really fast, and then, before we knew what was happening, you crashed into Sirius and—"  
  
"_What_?!" Remus suddenly stiffened and looked around the infirmary in fright. He then saw, lying on the bed next to him, Sirius's unconscious form. "Oh Merlin...I brought him down with me?"  
  
"Yep; you sort of collided with him mid-air and then you both went tumbling down to the ground. I expect the reason why he's not up yet is because he pretty much broke your fall. You toppled right off of him and bonked your head on the ground."  
  
"It was really scary..." Peter whispered. "You were both lying there, not moving...I thought you had both _died_!"  
  
Remus swung his legs over the side of the bed and tried to get up, but his foot got caught in the sheet, and he fell onto his hands and knees before he could right himself. Then he walked over to Sirius's bed to see the damage he had done.  
  
There was a wide scrape on Sirius's forehead that was healing (thanks to Madam Pomfrey's handy spells), and the sleeve of his right arm was torn, revealing the bandages underneath.  
  
"What happened to his arm?" Remus asked, pointing at it.  
  
"Oh; that was the arm that hit the ground first. Sirius was on his side when you guys hit, and Hooch was _convinced_ he had broken it, but it only got a little banged up."  
  
Sirius shifted on the bed, turning his head a little on the pillow. Then his eyes opened slightly, and he frowned, staring at Remus's shirt (which was all he could see, as Remus was standing directing in front of his face).  
  
Sirius groaned and closed his eyes, flipping over onto his stomach. "I don't _want_ to wake up right now. Go away. It's all your fault I'm like this."  
  
"I'm really sorry, Sirius," Remus apologized, looking miserable. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt. Honestly, I didn't."  
  
"You think he _planned_ on falling off of his broom?" James broke in, sounding affronted.  
  
"No, but you'd think that someone with magical parents would _know_ how to handle a broom by the time they're eleven—even Peter did okay on his."  
  
"I'm not eleven," Remus mumbled, though no one heard him. "I lived near Muggles my whole life," he added louder. "I wasn't allowed to do magic- related things near them."  
  
"Hmph."  
  
Sirius said nothing more to them, and after a few minutes, Madam Pomfrey forced Peter and James out of the hospital wing before giving Remus one last check over. Once she had declared him fine, she told him he could leave if he wished.  
  
Remus glanced over at Sirius (still sulking on his bed, though he was now sitting up) and said, "Sirius, I really am sorry. I don't want you to hate me...."  
  
"Go _away_."  
  
Remus went into the corridor, closing the door behind him.  
  
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September 26, 1971  
  
James scowled at both Sirius and Remus as they sat on their respective beds, purposely ignoring each other.  
  
"All right, I've had enough of this!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air, also causing the other boys to jump in surprise.  
  
"What's _your_ problem?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows, genuinely curious.  
  
"You!" James waved his arms about quite wildly. Remus stared at him blankly.  
  
"What?" said Sirius. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"You guys are suck _berks_ sometimes! Why can't you just get over yourselves and be friends? Remus has never done anything to cause you to hate him so much, Sirius. Frankly, I don't see why you do."  
  
Sirius scowled. "Because I do. He gets on my nerves. Happy?"  
  
"_Ugh_!" James sighed loudly and walked over between Sirius and Remus's beds. He grabbed Sirius's right forearm and yanked it roughly, dragging the boy off of his bed. Then he stomped over to Remus and seized his right arm as well. "I order you to call a truce!" He forced both of their hands together. "At _least_ for now. I'm so sick of your fighting."  
  
Remus obediently shook Sirius's hand—for actually the first time in his life, as Sirius had not been so polite on the train—and Sirius grudgingly returned the gesture.  
  
"Fine, Potter," he muttered. "I'll agree to this, since it looks like it's got your knickers in such a twist."  
  
"Thank you!" James replied cheerfully. "Now! Since that's all taken care of, who wants to join me for a game of exploding snap?"  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
The door swung open suddenly, banging loudly on its hinges. James, Sirius and Peter suddenly stopped laughing hysterically and looked at the intrusion. Fabian Prewett stood in the doorway, looking quite angry.  
  
"Will you guys shut _up_? You're so damn loud!"  
  
"Now, now, Fabian," they heard his twin say as he passed by on the way to their dormitory. "Language doesn't suit you! And besides; we must not forget the _children's_ ears!"  
  
Fabian only scowled and ignored Gideon. "I was trying to sleep, you know. It is _beyond_ me why a bunch of first years should be wide awake at this—"  
  
"Ungodly hour," Gideon put in, coming back to see the end of his brother's rant.  
  
"Shut up, Gideon. The point is; you need to be quiet."  
  
The three Gryffindor boys simply stared at Fabian. Then Sirius spoke.  
  
"Why should we? It's our dorm."  
  
"Yes, well I can hear you through the floor, you little snot."  
  
"That's your problem, though, isn't it?" James put in rather snobbishly.  
  
Fabian glared. "Fine. _Fine_." He took out his wand and tapped it on the doorframe. "_Silencio_," he muttered, and the boys thought they felt something pass through the whole room.  
  
"What did you just do?" James demanded.  
  
"I just soundproofed this room. Now none of us have to hear your bothersome noise. And it won't come down until I take it down personally." With one last annoyed glance, he shut the door.  
  
There was complete silence for a few seconds. Then:  
  
"_Yes_! Now we can be as loud as we like!" James exclaimed.  
  
"I didn't even know it was _possible_ to put a spell up that made everything silent!" Peter added.  
  
Yes, well," Remus finally spoke up, after being quiet through the whole ordeal, "I just hope you guys have a bit more respect for those of us _inside_ the room that want to sleep."  
  
"Ah, quit your whining, Lupin," Sirius replied. "It's not like we're going to be up _all_ night. We have to sleep sometime _too_, you know."  
  
"Uh-uh-uh!" James shook his finger at Sirius. "What did I say before?"  
  
Sirius simply stuck his tongue out at James and continued dealing the cards. Remus sighed and rolled over on his side on his bed, pulling his quilt over his head to try to create some quiet.  
  
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October 1, 1971, three days before the full moon  
  
As Remus sat in the corner of the large, squashy couch, he watched the other students. Several fifth years were sitting at a small table with books spread out about them, parchment scattered everywhere; James, Sirius and Peter sat in the three chairs by the fire, laughing; a few second years were running up and down the stairs in good spirits.  
  
Remus, however, was not in good spirits. The full moon was in three days, and he was beginning to feel some of the wolf's senses returning. Right now, as Remus watched the various people in the common room, he began to sense the warm, pulsing blood within their bodies. The wolf inside him whimpered, scratching at him; wanting to taste the blood.  
  
Remus tensed as he realized this. His stomach lurched unpleasantly in revulsion at the thought. However, he couldn't deny, as a third year girl walked by, that he wanted to bite into the people around him and lap up their lifeblood. Remus could almost see the bright red liquid covering the room; he could almost taste it on his lips....  
  
"Hey, Lupin!"  
  
He jumped several inches, sinking back farther into the couch as he fell down again. Turning his head, he saw Sirius stand up from his seat by the fire and start toward him. Remus sprang up from the couch in alarm as he felt another onslaught of the desire for blood, this time targeted on Sirius's blood. He clamped his hand over his mouth as he felt the contents of his stomach rise.  
  
"Remus, James and I have got the greatest idea!" Sirius exclaimed happily when he had come close enough so he didn't have to shout.  
  
Remus carefully took his hand away from his mouth and pretended nothing was wrong.  
  
"Really? What...what kind of idea?"  
  
Sirius plopped down onto the couch and tugged Remus back down also. Remus quickly edged away from the other boy, as unnoticeably as possible.  
  
"Well, you see, we were thinking that we could get Snape back for—" he stopped abruptly and raised his eyebrows at Remus. "What's up with you, mate? You don't look so good."  
  
Remus, who was clutching the fabric of the couch with white knuckles, gave Sirius a weak smile. "No, I'm alright. Just—I'll be right back, okay?" Before Sirius could respond, Remus jumped up and dashed out of the portrait hole.  
  
Sirius glanced over at James across the room and shrugged. He stood and returned to his chair by the fire.  
  
"What was that about?" James asked.  
  
"I haven't the slightest. He was really jumpy when I first came over, but...I dunno. That kid is really weird."  
  
"Yes, I know—you've told me that a million times."  
  
Outside in the corridor, Remus paused. He had no idea what to do now that he was away from the other people. Just then, he heard footsteps. However, even before he could begin to panic, which is what he had been planning to do, Mordred rounded the corner.  
  
Remus ran up to him. "Mordred, please, you've got to help me!"  
  
Mordred frowned. "What's the matter?"  
  
Remus bit his lip briefly. "I...I can sense everyone's blood!" he hissed quietly. "I'm scared I'll bite someone to get it!"  
  
Mordred looked at Remus in surprise. "I didn't know you-know-whats craved blood before the moon was full," he confessed.  
  
"What should I do? I can't go the rest of the next couple of days like this. I won't be able to concentrate in classes."  
  
The Head Boy appeared to think for a moment. Then his eyebrows rose. "Hey, I think I might have an idea. But I need to ask Dumbledore something. Do you want to come with me, or do you want to stay here?"  
  
Remus glanced back at the portrait entrance, but then returned his gaze to Mordred. "I want to go with you," he answered quickly.  
  
Mordred smiled warmly down at him. "Alright, kiddo." He went to place his hand on Remus's shoulder, but the smaller boy ducked away from it.  
  
"Please. Don't touch me," he said quietly. "I might try to hurt you."  
  
Mordred nodded. "Okay. Come on, then."  
  
Several minutes later, the two boys were standing outside of the stone gargoyle that marked the entrance to Dumbledore's office.  
  
"Purple Poppers," Mordred ordered in a whisper, and the gargoyle stepped aside to reveal a winding staircase that led up. A moment later they knocked on the door at the top of the stairs, and Dumbledore bid them entry.  
  
The old Headmaster did not look surprised to see them. Then again, he never seemed surprised by anything. "May I help you boys?" he asked, smiling.  
  
"Professor," Mordred began, "Remus was experiencing..." he frowned as he search for the right word, "cravings for blood just now, in the common room. "He told me he is worried he will bite someone."  
  
"And you have a possible solution to this?"  
  
He nodded. "Yes. I was thinking of those blood-flavored lollipops, that you can buy in Honeydukes. Do you think that they would help him?"  
  
Dumbledore scratched his beard thoughtfully as he observed Remus over his half-moon glasses. "Hmm. Would you like to try that out, Mr. Lupin?"  
  
Remus looked surprised that he was even being asked. "Er, I guess. I've never had one before. I thought they were for vampires," he replied, making a slight face of confusion.  
  
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try them, would it?" Dumbledore reasoned. "We'll never know until we try."  
  
Remus shrugged. "Okay."  
  
"Very well then." Dumbledore reached for a quill, some ink, and a piece of parchment. "Mordred, you wouldn't mind going down to Hogsmeade right now, would you? It is rather late."  
  
"No, I don't mind at all." Mordred then grinned. "I don't need Remus staring at everyone with goo-goo eyes for the next few days."  
  
Remus blushed and looked down at his hands that were twisting each other tightly, but Mordred just chuckled softly and ruffled his hair affectionately.  
  
Dumbledore handed the small piece of parchment to Mordred. "Carry this with you so that they know you are allowed down in the village right now. You needn't report back when you are finished; just return to your common room and give Remus the pops."  
  
"Yes sir." Mordred nodded and left with the note.  
  
Remus walked down to the common room, where he was immediately seized by the collar and dragged over to where his other fellow first year boys sat.  
  
"Where'd you go, Remus?" James asked curiously after Sirius had made sure Remus would not get up again from the chair he had been forcibly seated in.  
  
"I, er, needed to talk with Mordred about something." Remus swallowed in a tight throat, trying to ignore the warm pulsing of blood all around him.  
  
Forty-five minutes later, Mordred climbed through the portrait hole and glanced around for Remus. Spotting him settled in one of the chairs by the fire, he strode over and tapped Remus on the shoulder.  
  
Remus turned around, and Mordred handed him what looked like a deep red lollipop.  
  
Mordred grinned. "I wasn't sure what flavor you like, so I just got cherry," he explained for the other three boys' benefits. "I assumed that was a safe bet."  
  
Remus nodded. "Yeah, it was. Thanks." He took the proffered lollipop, and removed it from its wrapper. Then, hesitantly, he placed it into his mouth.  
  
Mordred watched him curiously, as if waiting for a reaction. Remus shivered, ever so slightly, and nodded to him.  
  
"Excellent. Well, then, I'll drop the rest off in your dorm, 'lright?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned and walked up the stairs.  
  
"What was that all about?" Peter asked as Remus turned back to them.  
  
"Oh. You mean why did he get me this?" he indicated the sucker in his mouth. They nodded. "I had a craving for them, so he offered to get me some."  
  
Sirius looked jealous. "Lucky," he grumbled. "How come you get to have the Head Boy do special favors for you?"  
  
"Because," Remus replied stubbornly, indicating it was the end of discussion.  
  
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October 4, 1971 (full moon)  
  
"Mr. Lupin," said Professor McGonagall, stepping into the common room, "could you please come with me?"  
  
Remus adopted confused look as he stood up. "I guess so...."  
  
James looked at Remus, a genuinely confused expression on his face.  
  
Sirius, however, grinned. "Ohh, no, Remus is in _trouble_!" he trilled.  
  
McGonagall turned to Sirius. "I can assure, you, Mr. Lupin is _not_ in trouble, Mr. Black. He, unlike someone else we both know, is quite a well- mannered student."  
  
"Ooh!" James cried gleefully, slapping Sirius on the back. "What a _blow_, Sirius!"  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
"What happened to Remus?" Sirius wondered aloud much later that day. "He left a while ago and never came back."  
  
James frowned. "Yeah. That _is_ odd...."  
  
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October 10, 1971, early in the morning  
  
Sirius lay asleep in his bed, dreaming of wonderfully random things, such as flying to Germany via broomstick...and then trying to reason with a cackling Erkling that his house was, indeed, up in the clouds above Austria, and not in the small opening in this rotted tree here...meeting Dai Llewellyn and discussing dangerous Quidditch plays...when suddenly he sat up in bed, his eyes wide open in confusion and fright.  
  
For a few mere seconds, he sat there, half tangled in his blankets, wondering what had woken him up. However, as a bloodcurdling scream sounded around the dormitory, his memory abruptly remembered what had interrupted his dreams. He threw apart his curtains, just in time to see James do the same.  
  
"What is that?" Sirius hissed, not able to hide the alarm in his voice as it cracked.  
  
However, James's hazel eyes were also wide, and he fumbled with his glasses as he tried to put them on. "I think—"  
  
He was cut off as they heard another sound, this time an agonized groan that turned into a terrified whimper halfway through. It came from Remus's bed.  
  
Sirius fell out of his bed—his legs had gotten twisted in his blankets—and whirled around to face Remus's bed, not even registering the fact that Peter had also gotten up and was blearily rubbing at his eyes while staring at Remus's bed in sleepy shock. Sirius could hear Remus thrashing around, and the three boys jumped when Remus cried out again. Sirius leapt forward and ripped the hangings aside, revealing the violently sleeping boy.  
  
Remus twisted this way and that, his whole body wrapped up in his sheets. His skin was coated with sweat, causing his clothes to stick to his body, and his bangs seemed melded to his forehead and cheeks from his perspiration. His face was scrunched up in pain, and he clutched his side as if afraid that all of his life would leak out of it.  
  
Sirius noticed all of this in less than an instant.  
  
As Remus gave another terrified moan, Sirius seized him by the shoulders and shook him.  
  
"Remus! Wake up! Goddammit, snap out of it!"  
  
Remus's eyes shot open, and he jerked up, gasping and coughing. However, as he fell back onto his mattress, Sirius could see that his eyes weren't focused on the room around him. Remus was still in his dream, even though his eyes were open. The sleeping boy choked on a sob, and before Sirius knew what was happening, Remus had seized his arm and began clutching it tightly.  
  
"Wh-what happened? Where's—why is Mama crying?" Remus's voice sounded childish, as if he were a little five-year-old. However, before Sirius could wonder about that, Remus gasped. "D-don't let them—don't let them take me away! P-please! No! _What did I do_?!"  
  
Sirius's arm was beginning to ache, and he was sure that there would be a bruise in the morning. Deciding that there was nothing else for it, he lifted his free hand and slapped Remus sharply across the face.  
  
James cried out and jumped forward to grab Sirius just as Remus finally woke up, but since Remus was still clutching Sirius's arm, he was yanked off of the bed and fell on top of Sirius and James. He banged his head on Sirius's chin before toppling onto the cold floor.  
  
Peter was the only one who hadn't gotten involved in the mess of tangled limbs, as he had not tried to interfere with the situation before.  
  
Sirius sat up, prying Remus's fingers away from his arm and shoving Remus's legs off of his before standing and sitting on the edge of Remus's bed to look down at Remus's wincing form.  
  
"You awake now?" he grumbled, rubbing his arm. There were red finger marks around his wrist.  
  
Remus glanced up at him before quickly turning toward James and Peter, and then lowering his gaze to the floor.  
  
"I'm sorry," he murmured. He brushed some strands of moist hair from his eyes, before taking the edge of his shirt and twisting it between his fingers. A split second later, he realized what he was doing and forcibly set his hands down by his sides. "I'm sorry," he repeated.  
  
"Why are you apologizing?" James demanded, picking himself up and then offering a hand to Remus. When Remus didn't seem to notice the offer, James grasped him by the shoulders and pulled him to his feet. Remus simply shifted and managed to sit limply down on the bed beside Sirius, still looking down at his hands.  
  
"Please...will you just leave me alone for a bit?" Remus asked softly. "I—I just...." He drew his knees up to his chin and stared off toward the window, away from the other boys. He felt the mattress shift as Sirius stood up.  
  
"Sure. I need my sleep anyway," he muttered. He clearly was not pleased about being woken in the middle of the night for this.  
  
Once they had all returned to their respective beds, Remus pulled the curtains shut around his own and laid back on his covers. He pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes and sighed deeply. He knew it must be after midnight, at least, because otherwise he wouldn't have had that dream yet.  
  
Six years ago, he had been not only cursed by the Lycanthropy, but he had also been cursed with nightmares that replayed the day of his attack, once a year, on his birthday. It reminded Remus of something his father had told him about from some Muggle novel, called _The Lord of the Rings_. Remus had never read the books, but Dorian had, and he used to tell some of the more amusing tales to Remus as bedtime stories when Remus was younger. Dorian Lupin, though he was a pureblood wizard, had an affinity for Muggle culture.  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
At a more reasonable time in the morning, the boys woke up, and the first thing James noticed as he went to get dressed, was the small wrapped package at the foot of Remus's bed.  
  
"Oy, what's that?" he asked, walking over to Remus as he pulled his shirt over his head.  
  
Remus reached for the box and picked up the envelope that was on top. "It's a gift from my family," he replied.  
  
James's eyebrows rose. "What for?"  
  
"My birthday." Remus opened the envelope.  
  
"_Hang_ on! Why didn't you tell us it was your birthday?" James demanded, sitting down on the edge of the bed.  
  
Remus stopped in his process of flipping the card open, and he looked up at James, seeming a bit confused, as well as slightly embarrassed. "Well, I didn't think it really mattered..." he trailed off. "It's only a birthday."  
  
"_Only a birthday_?!" James just about fell off the bed in shock. "When it's my birthday, my parents hold a big party! I mean, it's like...a big thing for it to be a birthday! How could you say a birthday's not important?!"  
  
Remus smiled. "Alright, then. Today is my birthday, James. I just thought you might like to know. Is that better?" he added.  
  
"Much. Now read us your card!"  
  
Sirius shook his head and rolled his eyes from where he was tugging on his pants. Peter was still asleep.  
  
Remus flipped open the card. "'Dear Remus,'" he read, "'Your father happened upon these on one of his Sunday wanderings, and he immediately knew you'd enjoy them. Happy Eleventh Birthday! Love, Mum, Dad and Aubrey'."  
  
"You're eleven?" Sirius broke in, coming over despite himself. "You mean you've been _ten_ all this time? Jeez, you're young."  
  
"Why? When's you're birthday?"  
  
"I turn twelve in June. Four whole months older than you," he stated smugly. "Well? Aren't you going to open your present? I want to see what you've got."  
  
Remus carefully unwrapped the package, and inside were three books: _The Count of Monte Cristo_, _The Three Musketeers_ and _The Man in the Iron Mask_, all of which were by an Alexandre Dumas.  
  
"Ooh, neat; I've been wanting to read these for ages! It's such a shame that the library doesn't carry Muggle books."  
  
To Be Continued....  
  
A/N: What fun. Oh, and I forgot to mention this last chapter...but in the first chapter (after the prologue), it says that McGonagall was the new Headmistress. This is a typo. I simply forgot to add the "Deputy" part to it. I wouldn't have even noticed, if it had not been for my friend telling me about it. (Thanks, Nozomi!) I just thought I should let you know...because some people could get confused about that. 


	5. Chapter 4: The End of 1971

Chapter 4: The End of 1971  
  
"Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss."  
- Alexandre Dumas  
  
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October 1971  
  
It was a Thursday evening, and the four first-year Gryffindor boys were sitting at a table by one of the windows in the common room, studying (Remus and Peter), trying to study, but getting distracted (James), or just generally being bored (Sirius).  
  
James, who had been staring out of the window for a while now, commented in a disinterested voice, "It's starting to rain."  
  
Remus briefly glanced up through the window to see that, yes, the thick gray clouds that had been hanging around all day had finally decided to let go of some of the cold liquid they held in their bellies high above the earth.  
  
Peter merely grunted to show he'd heard, but he kept glaring at the book he was supposed to read by tomorrow. As for Sirius, he was too busy drawing messy but elaborate doodles on his corner of the table to even notice that anyone had spoken.  
  
James sighed, clearly disappointed in the response from his friends. He didn't like being ignored.  
  
Several minutes later, Sirius's voice spoke up.  
  
"Did you notice that it's raining?"  
  
Remus blinked. "Er—"  
  
"Not raining, but _raining_ raining, you know?"  
  
James groaned and dropped his head onto the table. "What are you talking about, Sirius?" he mumbled.  
  
"Look outside, you nutter," Sirius replied, gesturing toward the open window.  
  
James looked up, and his eyebrows rose. "Jeez, it's pouring out there!" he exclaimed.  
  
A strong gust of cool wind blew in through the window, scattering several of Remus's papers. He grumbled and leaned over Sirius's shoulder to pull the window shut. Then he returned to his seat just as Peter handed him back his fallen papers.  
  
"Thanks, Pete," he smiled tiredly but genuinely at the other boy.  
  
"I want to go out there," Sirius suddenly announced, dropping his black pen—stolen from Remus—and staring at the others.  
  
Remus looked up at Sirius as if he'd grown a second head. "Absolutely not," he replied after a moment.  
  
"And why not? It could be fun!"  
  
Peter and Remus glanced at each other, their expressions clearly saying, "He's gone mad."  
  
James, however, set aside his book. "I, for one, want to get away from this homework."  
  
"Excellent. Anyone else up for it?" Sirius turned to Peter.  
  
"Er..." Peter glanced at Remus...and then at James. "I'll go," he said finally.  
  
"Well, looks like you're the odd-man-out, here, Lupin. Sure you don't want to join us?" Sirius stood up from his chair.  
  
"No thanks; I'm perfectly happy being dry. You three go enjoy yourselves as you catch pneumonia."  
  
"Will do, will do, old chap," James said gleefully, standing also.  
  
As the boys left Remus there, he sighed and eventually finished his all papers. He had gone up to the dorm to put everything away when they finally returned, bursting into the room, tracking mud and water over the floor in good spirits.  
  
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October 19, 1971 (new moon)  
  
"How come the moon's not out, if it's clear?" Peter asked as they were sitting down on the cool and dark grass.  
  
"Not up yet?" James suggested, shrugging his shoulders.  
  
"No, it's a new moon," Remus corrected absently. He was lying on his back with his hands behind his head; his eyes wide open as they scanned the starry sky.  
  
Sirius turned to look at him. "How do you know?"  
  
Remus stiffened but then relaxed. "I'm good at astronomy," he supplied evenly.  
  
"Oh, modest, are we?" James laughed.  
  
Remus looked embarrassed. "Well, I meant...I...."  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes in the dark. "Don't be so uptight, Remus. He's just teasing. In fact," he added as an afterthought, "you're probably the most modest of the four of us."  
  
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December 1971 (shortly before break)  
  
As Remus shut the door to the dormitory and turned toward his bed, he happened to glance up at the window and notice something. His eyes lit up, and he ran over to the window in excitement. Pressing his fingers against the glass, he looked out into the night that was partially lit up by the bit of moon that was peaking through some clouds. White flakes of snow were drifting down from the sky and coating the grounds in a silvery layer of the powdery substance.  
  
The door to the dormitory opened and closed, and a second later, James and Sirius appeared from underneath the invisibility cloak. Remus was too busy staring outside to notice them at first. As James put his cloak away, Sirius walked up behind Remus.  
  
"Whatcha—_ooh_!" he exclaimed as he, too, noticed the snow outside. "Snow! James, look; it's snowing!"  
  
James dropped the lid of his trunk and pushed the other two boys out of the way. "_Finally_," he breathed. "I was beginning to wonder if it would _ever_ snow this year!"  
  
Remus edged into the space by the window, taking out his wand and unlocking the latch on it. Then, to the other boys' surprise, he pushed open the window. Frosty air poured into the room, ruffling their sweaters and hair, giving icy kisses to their wide-eyed, childishly gleeful faces. Remus leaned forward with an outstretched arm, one hand grasping the side of the window. James and Sirius both jumped forward and seized him around the waist and shoulders.  
  
"Remus!" James exclaimed. "What do you think you're doing?! You wanna kill yourself?"  
  
Remus tilted his head sideways to glance back at his friends who were holding him back. "No," he replied with a slightly amused smile, "I just want touch it...."  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well then, you go ahead and touch the snow, but we're not letting go, you hear? The last thing we need is a Remus- shaped pancake down there in the yard."  
  
Remus made a face. "Wonderful imagery, Sirius," he replied sarcastically.  
  
"Anytime, anytime!"  
  
Remus leaned out further, his one hand still tightly grasping the side of the window. James and Sirius could see glistening ice crystals begin to collect in his faded brown hair. Remus laughed aloud, closing his eyes. For perhaps the first time in James and Sirius's lives, they saw a truly happy and peaceful expression appear on Remus's face.  
  
However, they were jolted back to reality when Remus suddenly let go of the window. They both tightened their grips on him and yanked him sharply back into the room, causing them all to tumble onto the floor of the dormitory in a pile of legs and arms.  
  
"Wha'd you do that for?!" Sirius exclaimed indignantly, as he pushed both James and Remus off of him. "You didn't even _warn_ us! We _might_ have been able to hold you if you had warned us, but—_jeez_—you had to be a prat and practically throw yourself out of the window, not even thinking about how heavy you are—"  
  
"I am not heavy!" Remus retorted huffily. "You're a lot bigger than I am; I'm practically skin and bones!"  
  
"Heh. Skin and bones, and maybe some really red blood in the snow, if you had've gotten your way," Sirius countered.  
  
James realized things were about to get dangerous, and quickly intervened. "Alright, you two, it's over and done with now! Remus _wasn't_ trying to kill himself, Sirius; and Sirius was only worried about you, Remus—he just doesn't want anyone to know he has a heart—"  
  
Sirius hit James on the arm. "Was not!"  
  
Remus just sighed and shook his head, sending droplets of melted snow onto his shoulders and into the air. Then he turned and closed the window again, locking it with his wand once more.  
  
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The Day Before Winter Break  
  
"So you're staying here for the holidays?" James spoke, packing some clothes into his trunk.  
  
"Yep," Sirius replied as he sat at the foot of James's bed, watching. "I reckon I'm not too welcome back at home, so I've decided to stay and maybe have a nice Christmas for once. Otherwise I'd have to deal with all my cousins and such." He made a face.  
  
"I'd invite you to my house," James began, "but my parents have already scheduled some bloody family reunion thingy that we're going to."  
  
Sirius shrugged it off. "No, that's fine. I'll live."  
  
"Peter's going away as well...maybe you could stay with him...?"  
  
Sirius made a rude noise. "Peter? No offense, mate, but I'd rather not spend all my time with him for more than two weeks."  
  
James laughed. "Alright, then. How about Remus? Is he going anywhere? Last time I talked to him, he was still at an indecision."  
  
"Still is. And he hasn't even gotten a letter from home telling him he _has_ to go back. It's like it's all up to him. Lucky dog."  
  
James shoved the trunk shut with a loud bang and then locked it. "Maybe you can convince him to stay, then, and you'll have someone to talk to."  
  
"I guess...." Sirius didn't seem too enthused about the idea.  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
"Hey, Remus, have you decided yet on whether you're staying at Hogwarts?" James asked Remus as he came into the dorm several minutes later.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Well, Sirius here was planning on staying, and we were wondering if you were too, so he doesn't shrivel up and die of boredom."  
  
Remus looked briefly startled, and he bit his lip. "Why are you staying, Sirius? I thought you would want to go home and be with your famil—"  
  
"Like hell I want to be with them," Sirius snapped, scrunching up his face.  
  
"Oh. Sorry. I was just asking," Remus replied quietly.  
  
"So!" James broke in. "Are you, or are you not staying?"  
  
"I'm staying. But...I have to go home for New Year's," Remus lied to them.  
  
"Wonderful," James exclaimed. "Now all we need to do is make sure you two don't rip each other's throats out over some stupid argument," he grinned.  
  
"We wouldn't do that," Remus sighed, sitting down on his bed and undoing his school tie.  
  
"No...but I might," Sirius said very solemnly. "I'm not sure if you knew this, Remus, but..." he held his hand over his heart, "I'm a vampire." He suddenly jumped off of James's bed and lunged at Remus, going, "ARGGGHHH!"  
  
Startled, Remus rolled over backwards, landing on the floor on the other side of his bed—amazingly, on his feet. This left Sirius flopped over the other side of the bed, half of his body (his legs and feet) on the floor. He was laughing.  
  
"That was cool, Remus," Peter exclaimed. "How did you do that?"  
  
"I—" Remus broke out of his shock and stepped up onto the bed to sit down. Then he began to laugh nervously. "I don't know, actually. And you better not hyperventilate, Sirius. Get off or sit up." He shoved at Sirius's head, pushing Sirius all the way off of his bed, causing the boy to fall to the floor.  
  
"Ow...."  
  
"Serves you right."  
  
James and Peter shared a look.  
  
"I think we _should_ be worried," Peter told James in a not-so-hushed voice.  
  
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December 25, 1971; Christmas morning  
  
Remus opened his eyes to stilled darkness. He lay there, his sheets and blankets twisted and cozily wrapped all around him like a big nest. He snuggled closer to his pillow and smiled to himself. Everything was so quiet, so peaceful, and his mind was still halfway between the sleeping and waking world.  
  
His foot hit something as he shifted under the many blankets, just about the same time that he heard a soft rustling several feet away from him in the only other occupied bed in the room. He sat up, despite the protests his body gave to the exposure to colder air.  
  
At the foot of his bed was a small pile of gifts.  
  
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Winter break 1971  
  
Sirius groaned loudly and fell into one of the chairs by the fire in the common room. "I'm _bored_," he complained, throwing a glance in Remus's direction, as if it was entirely the other boy's fault. Remus was lying on his stomach on the rug, a book called _The Magician's Nephew_ settled before him.  
  
"Well," Remus began after a moment, "find something to do."  
  
Sirius made an indignant huffing noise. "A lot of fun _you_ are; I bet if James were here, we'd be having so much more fun...."  
  
Remus sat up and marked the page he was on. "Fine. What do you want to do, then?"  
  
Sirius looked overjoyed that Remus was going to do something with him. He put on a show of thinking very deeply, and Remus was about to ask him if it hurt, when Sirius jumped out of his seat.  
  
"I know! Hang on, I'll be right back." With that, he ran up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Remus got up from his spot on the rug and set his book on a table before sitting down in the chair Sirius had just recently occupied. He heard a door slam a short moment later as Sirius returned.  
  
Sirius had apparently brought with him the golden pocket watch his father had given him for Christmas.  
  
"What's that for?" Remus asked him as Sirius stopped to stand in front of him.  
  
"I wanna try this trick that my Uncle Alphard told me about during the summer when he visited."  
  
Remus sat up in the chair. "How does it work?"  
  
"Well, you're going to have to play a part in it." Remus nodded, and Sirius continued. "Okay, and so you just sit there—yeah, don't move—and I swing this back and forth in front of you."  
  
Remus raised his eyebrows as Sirius let the chain slide through his fingers until the old pocket watch hung in the air. Soon the watch was swinging to and fro in front of Remus's face.  
  
"...Is something supposed to be happening?" Remus asked in a slightly bored tone as he glanced up at Sirius.  
  
"_Yes_," he replied irately. "You're supposed to get hypnotized. But something's not working...."  
  
Remus sat back in the chair. "Hypnotized?" he repeated apprehensively. "What're you going to make me do if you get it to work?"  
  
Sirius grumbled and sat down on the armrest that Remus wasn't leaning against. "You don't trust me, do you?" He gave Remus a skeptical look. When he didn't receive a response, other than Remus looking a little uncomfortable, he sighed.  
  
"Look. It's not like I'm going to make you do anything _dangerous_...." Suddenly he jumped off of the armrest and stood before Remus with a wide grin on his face. "I remember! You're supposed to stare at the watch as it swings, without moving your head. Just watch it with your eyes."  
  
Remus sighed and sat up straighter. Sirius began to swing the watch like a pendulum once again, and he eagerly stared at Remus as the other boy's eyes followed the movement of the watch.  
  
After a moment, Sirius noticed that Remus's face had become very relaxed.  
  
Still swinging the watch, Sirius said, "Remus? Can you hear me?"  
  
"Yes," Remus replied in his quiet voice, with the tone that he was off in some kind of dreamland.  
  
Sirius's eyes lit up. "It's working! Okay. Remus, do what I tell you. Nod if you understand."  
  
Remus nodded slowly.  
  
"Good, good. Now, when I snap my fingers," Sirius snapped them, "like so, you will be released from the spell." Sirius stopped swinging the watch and set it down on the table by Remus's book. Remus's eyes followed Sirius's every movement, but he didn't show any sign that he knew what was going on.  
  
Sirius grinned. "Alright then. Spin around in circles on that chair," he pointed to a wooden chair by one of the tables, "while singing _Oh Holy Night_," he ordered.  
  
Remus stood up from his comfortable spot on Sirius's chair and walked over to the indicated chair. He dragged it over to Sirius and then climbed up onto the seat, holding his arms outspread to get his balance. Then he began to turn around and around while standing there.  
  
"Ohhh Holy night, the stars are brightly shiiining..." he started singing in a beautiful soprano voice, surprising Sirius, whom had been expecting awful musical entertainment.  
  
Sirius laughed as Remus rotated for the thirteenth time: "Faaaaall on your knees, oh heeeear the angel voices.... Oh niiiight divine, oohh night, when Christ was born. Oh niiiiiiiight, diviiiiiiine, oohh night, oh night di—oh, god; Sirius, I'm gonna be sick!!"  
  
Remus stopped spinning abruptly, tilting back and forth unsteadily, his arms outspread again. "Sirius..." he said faintly, before falling limply forward and off of the chair.  
  
Sirius's eyes widened, and he jumped forward just in time to catch Remus by the shoulders and prevent him from hitting his head on the table. "I'm _so_ sorry, Remus; I didn't think that would happen!"  
  
Remus clutched his head with one hand as he leaned drunkenly against Sirius. "Well, _generally_, when one spins around in circles, he gets dizzy. It's a fact of life, Mr. Black," he mumbled sarcastically and allowed Sirius to lead him over the armchair to sit down. He shifted on the chair so that his head was resting on the right armrest, with his legs splayed over the left armrest.  
  
His eyes followed Sirius as he sat down on the armrest of the chair a few inches away from Remus's head. "You never think, do you, Siri?" he mused thoughtfully.  
  
Sirius scowled and grabbed Remus's book from the table, throwing it into his stomach before hopping off of the chair and plopping onto the rug moodily.  
  
"Ohh, thank you!" Remus exclaimed in an exaggeratedly cheerful tone. "I had been planning on getting it myself, but you were so kind as to get it for me. Now I don't need to get up!" He smiled and snuggled further into the chair and began to read from where he had left off, completely oblivious to the glare he was receiving from Sirius.  
  
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December 31, 1971 (full moon)  
  
"I thought you said you were going to go home today," Sirius said as he came out of the shower that morning and found Remus just barely waking up.  
  
"Ugnh..." Remus did not look very well at all as he sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His skin was an odd pasty color, and his hair hung limply around his face. As he stood up, he swayed dangerously on the spot. "Whoa...." He grabbed onto one of his bedposts and sat down again, trying to keep the world from spinning.  
  
"You alright?" Sirius came over and stood in front of him. "You coming down with something, or do you think it's from all the sweets we had last night?" he asked, referring to how they had decided to have their own little 'party' since Remus wasn't going to be at Hogwarts for New Year.  
  
"I dunno. I just—ughh—" Remus tried standing up again, but this time he simply collapsed onto the floor.  
  
"Remus!" Sirius jumped forward and crouched down next to him to shake his shoulder.  
  
Remus opened a bleary eye and looked up at Sirius. "Go get Madam Pomfrey, Sirius. Quick. Don't worry; I won't go anywhere," he tried to laugh, but instead he made a grimacing expression.  
  
"But should I—shouldn't I just bring you straight down there myself?"  
  
"No. It'll be faster this way. Trust me. Just go."  
  
Sirius sprinted down the stairs, leaving the door open and then slamming the portrait hole as he left the common room.  
  
When Sirius returned with Madam Pomfrey and Professor Griffith (the Astronomy professor had been in the infirmary, speaking with Madam Pomfrey and decided to come along), they found Remus out cold, right where Sirius had left him. Madam Pomfrey knelt down beside Remus and carefully turned him onto his back.  
  
"Would it help if I carried him down to the hospital wing, Poppy?" Professor Griffith offered.  
  
The nurse nodded. "Yes, we should bring him down there before we do anything else."  
  
"Is he still going to be going home for New Years when he's like this?" Sirius asked, watching as Professor Griffith scooped the thin unconscious boy up in his arms.  
  
Madam Pomfrey turned to Sirius. "Yes, of course he is. His family has known how to take care of their own son before he came to Hogwarts, Mr. Black!"  
  
"Jeez, I was just asking," he muttered moodily.  
  
"Yes, well, you should stay here. You have no need to come along," Griffith interrupted, carrying Remus out of the dormitory.  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
"_Enervate_."  
  
Remus opened his eyes and stared up at Madam Pomfrey.  
  
"How are you feeling, dear?" she asked him.  
  
"Erm...I dunno. Not well. My head hurts, and my stomach hurts, and my muscles ache.... Ugnh. I don't want to go down to the shack...."  
  
Pomfrey looked sympathetic. "I know you don't, but there's nothing we can do. I'll help you down there around nine this evening, but for now, why don't you get some rest."  
  
To Be Continue....  
  
A/N: Yech. Do you know how awful it is looking up Christmas songs in July? I remembered the lyrics to the song, but I couldn't remember the title of the song. ::hits self:: Silly me. I should have _realized_ it was the first three words! And jeez. Even when Remus and Sirius are friends, they can't seem to stop fighting! ::laughs:: I didn't really do that on purpose, actually. It just struck me as the way they'd react to certain things. Oh, well. Boys will be boys, I suppose. I'm glad I've only got one brother. 


	6. Chapter 5: Those Troublesome Gryffindor ...

Chapter 5: Those Troublesome Gryffindor Boys  
  
"Oh why does hate bring forth more hate?"  
  
- Hyde, 'A Drop of Colour'  
  
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January 1972  
  
"Remus, old buddy, old chap, old pal!"  
  
Remus yelped as James grabbed his upper arms and Sirius grabbed his ankles, hoisting him into the air.  
  
"Oh, no-no-no! Stop it, what are you doing?!" he exclaimed, twisting to get free. Unsuccessfully, one might add.  
  
"Aw, come on, Remus!" Sirius laughed, grinning at him as he grasped Remus's ankles.  
  
"But I don't _want_ to try your 'experiment'! You're going to poison me!"  
  
"We wouldn't do that to you, you goof. What use would it be for us to lose the voice of reason amongst us?" Sirius replied, exaggeratedly raising his eyebrows.  
  
"I'm honored you think so highly of me," Remus replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes at Sirius. He had stopped struggling and was simply letting them haul him up the stairs.  
  
Once they reached the dorm, and Peter had opened the door, James and Sirius deposited Remus ungracefully on the floor.  
  
James strode over to his trunk and lifted a small cauldron off of the lid. Bringing it over the center of the room, he placed it on the floor next to Remus.  
  
"Ew, what is that?" Remus asked uncertainly, leaning over it. "It smells ghastly."  
  
"This, my good fellow, is a potion that shall get the Slytherins to do what we want!"  
  
"And why do _I_ have to test it?"  
  
"Because Peter'd do what James tells him _anyway_, but you...well, let's just say that we are expecting some resistance, which is also what we'd get with the Slyths."  
  
Remus frowned. "Why do I get the impression that you guys enjoy forcing me to do things like this for you?"  
  
"I don't know; I simply do not know, mate," Sirius said, smirking at James. "Only pour in a little bit, James. We don't need him on it for _that_ long."  
  
"Don't worry, we aren't going to make you actually _do_ anything, Remus," James assured him as he handed him the small cup of potion.  
  
"Shouldn't we think of something that he would never want to do, though?" said Sirius.  
  
"No!" Remus protested, glaring at Sirius. "And I'm not doing anything that _he_ suggests," he announced, pointing at the aforementioned party.  
  
"Ah! And whyever not?" Sirius gave every indication that he was purely innocent, but Remus knew much better.  
  
"You know _perfectly_ well why not, you prat," Remus replied, folding his arms.  
  
James suddenly grinned. "Well, I know what I'm going to make you do, now, Remus."  
  
Remus whirled around to look at James. "What?"  
  
"You're going to have to agree with Sirius for a day. You'll have to agree with him about everything."  
  
Remus gave him a strange look. "That's what you're going to make me do? But how do you plan on making me change my mind about what I actually think?"  
  
"Ah. He does have a point there, doesn't he?" Sirius agreed, tilting his head slightly.  
  
"Hmm. What does Remus hardly ever do?" James wondered aloud, tapping his chin.  
  
Remus sighed, glancing around at them all. Why did they always have to go causing so much trouble? James was making him quite uneasy, staring at him like that. He felt like some sort of...some sort of _specimen_ on display. He shifted uneasily.  
  
Suddenly, James's face lit up. "How does a talkative Remus sound to you guys?"  
  
Sirius snorted. "Talkative? Him? You've got to be kidding."  
  
"Exactly. That won't hurt you, Remus," James reasoned. "All you'd have to do is talk like a _normal_ person for once. You're always so quiet; the only time you really talk is when you're angry...which hasn't been very often, I can tell you. I could probably count it on one hand the number of times you've gotten verbally angry with one of us."  
  
"You guys are going to be the death of me, I swear. Fine. I'll do it. But you better not make me say everything that I'm thinking." He narrowed his eyes at the other boy.  
  
"Well, I won't make you say anything that is really personal; how does that sound to you?"  
  
"Well...I guess that's alright. Let's just get it over with," Remus groaned, and held the cup up to his mouth. He used his left forefinger and thumb to hold his nose shut, and then he tilted the cup back, swallowing the potion with a shuddering grimace.  
  
A second after drinking it, his face went an interesting shade of grayish-green, and he hunched over slightly, gagging. "I think...I'm gonna puke," he stumbled to his feet and was about to bolt for the bathroom, but then he paused, a hand on his stomach, and took several deeps breaths. "O- okay, I think I'm fine now. But if you ever make me drink something like that again, you're in deep trouble," he warned.  
  
"Alright, what next?" Peter asked.  
  
"Now we tell him what to do, of course!"  
  
"You know, I don't think this is going to work.... I mean; the Slytherins are not going to just stand around, waiting for you to tell them what to do."  
  
"Well, they don't _need_ us to stand right in front of them as we tell them what to do," James explained. "We could be up here while they are in the Great Hall, and it would still work, because they have the potion inside them, and we made the potion. That's just the way it works. But you get to be here because I honestly can't think of any reason why you shouldn't be," he grinned up at Remus from his seat on the floor.  
  
Once again, Remus sighed. "Fine. Just do whatever you're supposed to, to get it to work."  
  
Still sitting casually on the floor, James spoke up to Remus, "Say whatever is on your mind—except for those really personal thoughts, of course," he amended, seeing Remus's furious expression, "until the potion runs out."  
  
"I can't trust you, can I?" Remus instantly replied, sitting down with a thud onto the floor beside Sirius.  
  
"Nope," James said cheerfully.  
  
"Well, that's to be expected, isn't it?" Sirius added.  
  
"Yeah, that's true," Remus agreed.  
  
Peter, who hadn't really said much, but had been watching Remus carefully after he had drank the potion, spoke up. "You know what's kind of funny? When Remus speaks his mind, he's actually agreeing with Sirius more!" he laughed.  
  
Sirius pretended to be offended. "So you're saying, that all this time, you've been _lying_ to me, Remus?! You liked all my ideas, yet you pretended that they were stupid." He made an annoyed noise. "What a great friend you are."  
  
"Well, I'm _sorry_, but you never think about how dangerous your ideas are, do you? Even though they might _sound_ cool, you need someone to tell you that you're being a complete idiot sometimes, Sirius." Remus looked slightly frightened by his own audacity. "I didn't mean that! Er—well. Oh, this is all your fault!" he suddenly exclaimed, waving his hands at both James and Sirius. "Why do I have to be like this all day?"  
  
James and Sirius shared a look. "I think this is going to be fun," Sirius announced, smirking and standing up. "Now, shall we go down to lunch?"  
  
: : : : : : :  
  
Remus groaned and let his head drop onto the table. "Somebody, please. Put me out of my misery. I don't' think I can stand being around you any longer."  
  
"Oh, you'll be fine, old chap," Sirius consoled, patting him absently on the head with the hand he wasn't using to eat his soup.  
  
"Oh, it's all nice for _you_, but you're not the one who has to say everything that you're thinking."  
  
Sirius laughed. "But I do that all the time! Like right now, I'm thinking, jeez, Remus sure looks like he just had his head flushed down a toilet, and it's not flattering at all, I'll let you know."  
  
"Thanks. That makes me feel _oh_ so much better."  
  
"No problem, mate. I'm here to make sure you don't cause harm to yourself, after all!"  
  
"You're a bloody liar, that's what you are, you berk. Sorry, didn't mean that."  
  
"Oh-oh-oh!" Sirius shook his finger at the slumped boy beside him. "Yes you did, because you were thinking it, and you said it, didn't you? But that's fine with me—it's quite amusing to hear our innocent little Remmykins say such insulting words."  
  
Remus groaned. "I need to get away from him. I really do," he muttered to himself. "Oh, god, I'm talking to myself now...." He tried to ignore the snickering that was coming from Sirius's direction. "Everyone's going to think I've gone crazy. Well, maybe Peeves was right those many months ago. 'Loony loopy Lupin' I may be."  
  
"Huh?" Sirius had stopped laughing, and was leaning over him in curiosity. "What did old Peeves say?"  
  
"_Ages_ ago, he called me 'Loony Loopy Lupin.' It was way in the beginning of the year. All I did was tell him my name when he asked, and for some odd reason he knew exactly who I was."  
  
"Sounds horrifying. Were you traumatized?" Sirius asked with a wide grin.  
  
Remus stared up at him with raised eyebrows. "No...but I think I am now. You're scaring me. Go away, will you? It would be so very kind of you to do so."  
  
Sirius actually burst out laughing, and then he stood up. "Alrighty then. But you're coming with me, you poor, poor soul." He tugged on the back of Remus's shirt until Remus stood up as well.  
  
"I hate you right now, did you know that?"  
  
"Well, now I do," Sirius replied reasonably. "But I sort of figured you did. You're far too easy to read. Unlike those books you are so fond of. I can't see how you can sit for hours at a time and just...stare at pages with ink scratches on them. Don't you get dizzy looking at them forever and ever and—"  
  
"I get the point, Sirius."  
  
"I know _I_ would," he continued as if Remus had never said anything.  
  
"See, this is one of the reasons why I don't talk all the time!" Remus rolled his eyes. "Because no one will listen."  
  
"And the ink sometimes comes off on your fingers...ugh, it's so disgusting.... And it's so _boring_, too."  
  
Remus just shook his head and decided to ignore Sirius as they walked back up to the Gryffindor tower to find James and Peter, who had left them in the Great Hall when they saw that it was going to take forever to get the talkative Remus to eat his food.  
  
"I'm going to be so glad when this is all over," he mumbled.  
  
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Late January 1972  
  
Remus absentmindedly reached into the drawer of his bedside table and withdrew a lollipop. Not taking his eyes off of the book before him, he removed the wrapper and slipped the candy into his mouth. He hummed softly and swung his feet back and forth in the air as he lay on his stomach on his bed, reading.  
  
Sirius came into the room and dropped his bag on his trunk with a sigh.  
  
"Bloody teachers, giving us so much homework to do," he muttered. Then he noticed Remus with a lollipop in his mouth, and his eyes lit up. "Ooh!" he exclaimed, and seized the bag of pops from Remus's bedside table.  
  
Remus jerked up from his book and stared at him in shock before jumping off of the bed and diving for the bag of candies.  
  
"Hey! You can't have those!" he protested as he tried to steal them back. Sirius, however, held them high over his head.  
  
"Just one! Please, Remus? Just one!"  
  
"No! They're mine!" The small boy jumped up and snatched the edge of the bag, pulling it out of Sirius's grip. He hugged the candies to his chest.  
  
Sirius pouted. "Aw, why won't you share? I only want one...."  
  
"They're mine," Remus repeated quietly as he put them back in the drawer.  
  
"Jeez. _Somebody's_ attached to his sweets.... Selfish little twat."  
  
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January 30, 1972  
  
As per usual, Remus went to the Shrieking Shack for his monthly transformation. However, this night would be different. As the moon rose above the horizon, he was forced through the expected agony of changing, but before long the wolf felt something strange happening. He was changing back.  
  
Disoriented, Remus lay on the floor, trying to figure out what had happened. However, as he looked out the window, he realized what was going on. A faint shadow, only visible to Remus's senses at the moment, had appeared on the very edge of the moon's surface. Tonight was going to be a lunar eclipse.  
  
A smile broke out on Remus's tired face, and he walked over to the window so he could look out at the full moon. He stumbled as he felt the wolf trying to get out again, sensing the presence of a full moon, yet also the earth's shadow that blocked the full effect of the light. With a relieved sigh, Remus walked up the stairs to the room where the bed was. He would get some well-deserved sleep this night.  
  
: : : : : :  
  
Remus awoke, trembling and sweaty, tangled in the blankets. His throat was raw from screaming. He toppled off of the bed as a bolt of pain surged through his body.  
  
The citizens of Hogsmeade shivered in fright as they heard a long, high-pitched scream cut through the night, sending off waves of unspeakable terror and suffering. They wished the ghouls that haunted the house on the hill would disappear and never return.  
  
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Early 1972  
  
The four Gryffindor boys were in the Gryffindor common room, working on the large pile of homework that the teachers had assigned that night. Remus was hunched over his paper, his left elbow propped up on the table, his fingers tangled in his hair as if he would tear it out any moment. He scribbled furiously with his other hand, pausing every once in a while to search frantically through the several open books lying in front of him. James sat next to him, also working, but at a more relaxed pace. _He_ didn't have extra work to make up in addition to the normal workload. On the other side of the table, Sirius and Peter sat. Sirius was twiddling his quill between his fingers while he frowned up through his bangs at Remus every few seconds before looking back down at his parchment, and Peter kept sighing mournfully at his half filled up roll of parchment.  
  
"Hey, Lupin."  
  
Remus rolled his eyes, but didn't look up at Sirius. "What," he grumbled, his voice deadpan.  
  
"Where do you go, every time you leave?"  
  
Remus's quill paused briefly, but then he continued to write. James and Peter looked up from their homework to watch. "Different places. Usually I go home, to see my mum. She doesn't have very good health."  
  
"I don't believe you."  
  
"What?" He'd noticed Sirius watching him at odd points...was this what was going on? Oh _no_....  
  
"Your mum can't keep getting sick so often, otherwise she'd be dead by now." He shifted back in his chair. "You know what? I don't think you've even got a mother. Either that, or she's a right prick. You always make her out to be so—"  
  
"You take that back!" Remus was near breaking point already from his homework, and Sirius was not helping one bit.  
  
"Why should I? It's the truth, isn't it?" Sirius scowled. "Well, whatever it is, I know you're lying to us. You never tell us anything, when we tell you all of our secrets. You think you're better than us; _you_ can keep all your secrets to yourself, but you know ours...."  
  
Remus had long ago stopped trying to write, and he was clenching his fists angrily as he glared at Sirius. He was breathing heavily, trying to calm himself down.  
  
"Sirius," James said quietly. "You shouldn't—"  
  
"I can say what I like!" Sirius retorted hotly, sending a brief glare in James's direction. "He's a little liar, that's what he is."  
  
Remus snapped. Jumping up from his chair and knocking it over, his fist swung out and caught Sirius in the jaw, sending Sirius toppling over onto the common room floor.  
  
The room went silent for a second, but Remus didn't notice. Blood was pounding in his ears, and all he felt was enormous fury toward Sirius at that moment.  
  
Sirius jumped up after he'd quickly gotten over the shock, and he punched Remus in retaliation. However, even though Sirius was the bigger out of the two of them, soon Remus had thrown him to the rug and was furiously punching Sirius as he held him down with his knees.  
  
Someone much older than him suddenly grabbed Remus around the middle and wrenched him off of Sirius. Almost as soon as he was off, though, Sirius jumped up and tried to get back at Remus. James seized Sirius's arms and pulled him back.  
  
Remus kicked and scratched at the person who held him (it turned out to be Mordred), and the Head Boy had to wrap his arms around Remus's chest, thus pinning the boy's upper arms to his sides.  
  
"I hate you! _I hate you_!" Remus shrieked as Mordred struggled to restrain him from pummeling Sirius to death.  
  
"Well I don't _bloody care_!" Sirius shouted back at him. James was having a difficult time holding him back as well.  
  
Remus was breathing heavily, unconsciously baring his teeth at the other boy in anger as he continued to thrash about. Suddenly he began to hyperventilate, and he stopped squirming against Mordred as he gasped for air.  
  
"Remus?" Mordred questioned at the sudden lack of effort he had to put into holding the small first year. His expression became alarmed as he noticed Remus struggling to breathe. "Remus!" he shook Remus's shoulders slightly.  
  
Remus seized Mordred's arm tightly and mumbled something unintelligible. Then his whole body went limp, and his head flopped back against Mordred's stomach, his legs sliding forward on the floor.  
  
Sirius had stopped fighting against James a long time ago, watching Remus with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth.  
  
"_Merlin_," Mordred cursed, leaning down to scoop Remus up into his arms. "You, Mr. Black, are coming with me, down to the hospital wing, and then to the Headmaster's office," he sternly informed Sirius. Without waiting to see if Sirius was following, he turned and left the common room.  
  
Sirius frowned and trailed along shortly after, watching Remus. After a few minutes of staring at the unconscious boy as he walked, he lowered his gaze to the floor. It made him feel so guilty after seeing Remus so helpless like that, even though only minutes before, Remus had been unmercifully pummeling him into the common room rug.  
  
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Spring 1972  
  
It was just as the sun was disappearing below the horizon, and the wispy clouds were tinted red and gold. The wind blew past Remus's body as he stood in the field, the golden wheat rustling all around him. There were trees bordering the field, and their shadows contrasted deeply with the red glow of everything else.  
  
Remus looked down at himself and realized that he was no longer an eleven-year-old. Instead, he was taller and had the tiny prickles of stubble on his chin. His hands were larger, and his hair was longer, brushing just below his shoulders, though his thin bangs still hung just below his shadowed eyes. His clothes were worn and hung loosely on his body. He was wearing all black; the kind he would wear to someone's funeral.  
  
The hazy sun sank below the bloody horizon, and dark, gloomy shadows slithered over the field, consuming it in darkness. But Remus could still see the outline of the trees at the edge of the field, and the pulsing gray light that seemed to seep from inside the woods. He began to walk toward the pulsating trees, even though he knew it would be disastrous to enter beneath their boughs.  
  
He stepped into the shadows, and immediately all light ceased to exist. But he kept walking, and soon he came upon a body. Two bodies. And one of them was clutching a bundle. The bundle was moving. It was making noise. It was crying. And these two people looked so very familiar to Remus....  
  
Remus looked up in wonder as a huge green light shot up into the sky, forming the image of a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. There were screams in the distance.  
  
"_Remus_!_ Wake up_!"  
  
Remus jerked up in his covers, startling both himself and James, who was shaking him roughly.  
  
"What...what happened?"  
  
"You were whimpering like a little girl, that's what," Sirius replied from his bed, looking through his curtains.  
  
"Shut up, Sirius!" James snapped. "You were having a nightmare, I think. It woke me up."  
  
"Sorry. I didn't mean t—"  
  
Sirius snorted. "Woke me up too, and Pete as well."  
  
"What was it about? You remember?" James asked.  
  
Remus stiffened. "I...I'm not sure. I was...older, and I was standing in some kind of field, I think. I think it was a wheat field."  
  
"What would you be doing in a wheat field?" Peter asked curiously.  
  
Remus shook his head. "I have no idea. But that's not what I'm worried about. There were two dead bodies and a crying baby too."  
  
Sirius suddenly shivered, a shadow passing over his face. "You have really creepy dreams, Remus. I don't want to know about this one."  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------  
  
Late June 1972  
  
As Remus got off of the train and stepped onto the platform, he heard a little boy's excited scream.  
  
"Remy!" He turned just in time to see a small boy of three trying valiantly to run over to him with outstretched arms. It was Aubrey.  
  
Remus laughed and scooped up Aubrey when he reached Remus, spinning him around in the air and then letting him rest on his hip as he hugged his little brother.  
  
"Hey, Remus, who's this?" Sirius asked in amusement as he looked at Aubrey.  
  
Remus turned and walked back to him. "This is Aubrey, my little brother," he introduced. "Say hello, Aubrey," he whispered in the toddler's ear.  
  
Aubrey grinned widely, not shy at all, and replied, "Hei-oh, Remy- fend!" He waved his arms around wildly while staring wide-eyed at Sirius.  
  
Remus laughed. "His name is Sirius. Can you say that?"  
  
"Seeri-us! Us, us, us!" he ended in a little singsong voice. Remus had to put him back down on the ground because he was wriggling around so much.  
  
The moment Aubrey was let down, he ran back over to Jacqueline, who was standing a few meters away, smiling towards Remus and Sirius.  
  
"Is that your mum?" Sirius asked Remus in a lowered voice.  
  
Remus raised his eyebrows at Sirius, smiling slightly. "Yeah...why?"  
  
"She's pretty," Sirius muttered, a very faint blush rising in his cheeks.  
  
If possible, Remus's eyebrows had risen even higher on his forehead. "Sirius, she's my _mum_! Don't tell me you fancy my mum?!"  
  
Sirius looked affronted. "I never said anything of the sort," he replied in his defense. "I merely stated—"  
  
"Hello, boys," Jacqueline greeted cheerfully, stepping over to them since Remus hadn't seemed to be heading toward her. She gave Remus a tight hug. "How was school, love?" she asked him, kissing his forehead.  
  
"_Mum_," Remus squirmed out of her grasp in embarrassment. "Not in front of everyone!"  
  
Jacqueline laughed and turned to Sirius. "I guess I'm not allowed to appear in public with my own son anymore," she said with a smile at Sirius. "Well, since he doesn't want my attention, may I ask who you are? One of Remus's friends, I presume?"  
  
Sirius nodded, and then swallowed back his previous awkwardness. "I'm Sirius, ma'am," he replied, and offered his hand for her to shake.  
  
Remus fought to hold back laughter, and instead settled on grinning widely. Sirius frowned slightly and kicked him.  
  
Jacqueline pretended to ignore this, and continued, "Well, it's lovely to meet you Sirius."  
  
"Mum, where's Dad?" Remus broke in as Aubrey grabbed him by the hand and tried to pull him around in a circle.  
  
"Oh, he's working. He wanted to come, but they wouldn't let him off for the afternoon. But he promised to be home for supper."  
  
Remus nodded. "Alright." Then he turned back to Sirius. "Well...I guess I'll see you in a couple months. Promise to write?"  
  
Sirius laughed. "Yeah, I promise. So. Would you like an owl every hour, or once every forty days?" He smirked widely.  
  
"Sirius!" Remus exclaimed, rolling his eyes.  
  
"Heheh. Just kidding. I'll wri—oof! JAMES!" Sirius stumbled forward and almost fell flat on his face, were it not for Remus shoving him backward again into James, who had run up behind him and pushed him.  
  
"My, my, what violent friends you have, Remus," Jacqueline spoke, smiling warmly at them all.  
  
Remus gave a fake cough. "Yeah...I know."  
  
"But he loves us anyway! Right, James?" Sirius exclaimed, throwing an arm around both Remus and James's necks.  
  
"Ooh! Me too! Me too!" Aubrey cried, latching onto Remus's arm.  
  
"Yes, yes; you too, Brey," Remus responded, lifting Aubrey and kissing him lightly on the forehead. The three-year-old scrunched up his face.  
  
"Ew! Kissies!" He blew a raspberry at Remus, spraying drool droplets all over.  
  
"Ew?" Remus repeated in amusement, shooting a grin at Sirius and James, "well, then, I guess you'd rather I..._tickle_ you?" His fingers lifted Aubrey's shirt and began to tickle his stomach.  
  
Aubrey shrieked, eliciting a wince from Remus because of his sensitive hearing, and he squirmed wildly until Remus handed him over to Jacqueline. Remus noticed several nearby parents were glancing their way with disapproving expressions.  
  
To Be Continued....  
  
A/N: Agnh. I am so, so sorry about the delay. I simply was not feeling very interested in anything to do with Harry Potter for a while, and then I somehow managed to get sick for a day and a half in the middle of _summer_. I forced myself to finish this chapter, even though I did _not_ feel like writing. Oh, and I almost forgot! I'm quite happy to be finally finishing their first year, because I discovered the other day that I absolutely hate eleven-year-old boys. They're always being so violent and loud and disgusting and annoying and...yeah. I never want to go anywhere with my brother and his friend ever again.  
  
Oh, and just something I thought I'd let you know. If you want me to answer questions that are in reviews, you must leave a way for me to contact you. ::smiles:: It's wonderful that you want to ask me things, but sometimes I'd actually like to answer them, and it's rather disappointing when I go to the person's profile page (if they are a member), and find that there is no address through which I can contact them. ::sigh:: Sorry for the long author note! I can't seem to do anything right....  
  
Please review! Maybe it'll make me want to write again. 


	7. Chapter 6: And They Begin to Wonder

Chapter 6: And They Begin to Wonder

"We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing."

- R. D. Laing

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Early July 1972

_Remus_— 

_How're you doing? If you're not too busy, you should come over to my place sometime! Sirius and Peter have already said they could come. On the fourteenth (my twelfth birthday, in case you were wondering), we were planning on heading down for a day at the beach. Come on, you've got to say yes! I know you want to come...._

_James_

Remus smiled and walked out of his bedroom, journeying over to the living room, where he knew his mother would be, most likely reading or writing.

"Mum," he began as he entered the room and found her sitting on the floor by the coffee table, a glass of iced tea to her right, a pile of papers directly before her. Aubrey was playing with a set of plastic trucks on the wooden floor.

"Are we doing anything important on the fourteenth?"

Jacqueline looked up. "No, I don't believe so.... Why?" She picked up her tea, leaving a crescent of moisture on the glass tabletop.

"Well, that's James's birthday, and he was wondering if I could go with him and Sirius and Peter to the beach. Can I? Please?"

"_Vroom vroom—eeeerrrk! Crash!!!_" Aubrey started giggling, staring at the mess he'd made by causing all his trucks to smash into each other. "Mama, look!"

Jacqueline sighed slightly and obligingly looked over at the plastic trucks all over the floor. "Yes, I see. Just make sure you clean them all up when you're done, Aubrey; if I find any pieces under the furniture when I sweep, they're going straight into the trash." She turned back to Remus. "Yes, you may go if you like. Are you going to need to go out to get a gift for him?"

"Probably."

"Well, then when Dad comes home, you can ask him if he can take you."

Remus nodded. "Okay. Thanks!" He turned around and ran back to his room to write a letter back to James.

_I can come! What time should I be ready? _

_Remus_

He sent the letter off, and then went back to working on his summer homework.

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July 14, 1972

Remus stumbled out of the fireplace, into the Potter's living room. The first person he saw was Peter, who grinned at him and helped him to his feet. Then he saw James and Sirius, whom both had on swim shorts and tank tops, unlike his choice of a white t-shirt and faded jeans. Peter had on a mixture of them all; a yellow t-shirt and red swim shorts. Remus handed James his gift.

"Don't you plan on swimming?" Sirius asked, briefly taking in Remus's appearance.

Remus held up his small nap sack that held his towel and swim shorts. "Yeah," he replied. "I'll change once we're there."

"Great. Now come on," James exclaimed, grabbing Remus's arm and tugging him out of the room, into the kitchen. "Mum! Remus is here!"

Twenty minutes later, the four boys climbed past the front passenger seat of the Potter's Range Rover to get to the back, where they all had to squeeze into the three-person seat.

"How far is the beach?" Sirius asked, trying to get James's elbow out of his left side. Remus was being much more polite than James, as he was holding his arms as close to his body as possible, letting his hands rest on his thighs. On the other side of Remus, Peter was also doing his best to take up as little space as possible, but fate was against him, unfortunately.

Mr. Potter turned around in the driver's seat as Mrs. Potter finished packing the picnic basket and climbed into the passenger seat. "It's about an hour and a half's drive."

His reply was met with several groans.

: : : : : :

Two hours, three turn-arounds, one gas break (during which Mr. Potter asked the clerk in the station for directions), one car-sick-Peter and one harried Mrs. Potter later, they finally arrived at the beach with minimal damage done to each of the passengers of the Potter vehicle. Although...Sirius swore that Remus had broken his nose when the latter had flung himself as far away from Peter as possible when he sensed the car-sickness of Peter and thus accidentally smacked his arm into Sirius's face.

The second Mr. Potter was out of the car, James and Sirius pushed the seat forward and threw themselves out of the car. Remus followed shortly after, and Peter waited until Mrs. Potter was out before getting out as well.

"You'll feel much better once you've had some fresh air," Mrs. Potter told him comfortingly.

Peter nodded. "I've never been in a car before," he told her. "My family always uses the Floo Network or a Portkey."

"Come on, Pete!" James shouted as he, Sirius and Remus ran down the gravel pathway. "Let's claim a good spot!"

Peter grabbed his beach towel and quickened his pace, his face still a little pale, but slowly gaining back its usual color. Mr. and Mrs. Potter just shook their heads and followed a more leisurely pace, enjoying the view of the water down below.

Once the picnic blanket was laid out and the large umbrella was set up, Remus left to change while everyone else was starting on their lunch. A few minutes later he returned, wearing only a pair of dark blue swim shorts with white stripes down the sides of his legs. He wished he owned a pair of sandals, as the gravel kept poking into his bare feet.

The other three boys had discarded their shirts due to the heat, and James passed Remus a cup of pink lemonade as Mr. Potter pulled out a turkey sandwich to hand to him. When they were finished their sandwiches, Mrs. Potter took out six small, clear plastic cups that appeared to hold chocolate and mint ice cream with a layer of crushed cookie and whipped cream on top.

"Woh, Mum!" James exclaimed, as he was handed one, along with a spoon. "How'd you get them to not freeze?"

"It was nothing more than a little charm," she replied, smiling. "I hope they taste alright. I had to change the recipe a bit."

Sirius took a large spoonful and proclaimed a moment later, "It's delicious, Mrs. Potter!"

"Yeah, Mum, it's great. You should make these kinds of things more often."

Mr. Potter laughed. "Well, if she did that, then I would have quite the round belly, wouldn't I? I don't think that's such a good idea, Jim," he grinned at his son.

Soon after eating their dessert, James jumped up and announced that he wanted to swim.

"Boys, you need to wait at least half an hour before swimming," Mrs. Potter chided.

"Aw, that's just an old wives' tale," Sirius protested, standing as well. He yanked Remus to his feet and then did the same with Peter. "Come _on_; I want to swim!" He then raced James to the edge of the water, where there were many more people.

As Remus waded into the water, he discovered that it was _very_ cold. He got up to the hem of his shorts and then stopped, slightly unsure if he wanted to go further in. He could feel goosebumps prickling along his legs under the water.

Sirius had noticed his hesitation and swam back over until he had to stand up again. "Whatcha afraid of?" he teased, flicking water at Remus.

Remus scowled, trying to keep his dignity. "It's _cold_," he replied rather pathetically. To his alarm, this only seemed to make Sirius look more gleeful.

"Too cold?" he repeated in an excellent impression of surprise.

Remus waded a few more feet to prove he wasn't afraid of the cold, and Sirius smirked at his grimace when the water touched the bare skin above his shorts.

"You can do better'n that," he egged Remus on in an annoyingly superior tone of voice. He was now treading water as Remus stopped once again with the water less than halfway up his torso. Suddenly he grabbed Remus's arm and caused him to yelp and lose his balance, falling farther into the water before managing to regain his balance.

Spitting out the salty water, Remus rounded on Sirius and pushed him under so that he could get away before the other boy could do anything else. Sirius resurfaced less than a second later, coughing out water so he could get his revenge. Soon James and Peter were brought into the fight, and they were all violently splashing and yelling as most eleven and twelve-year-old boys do.

: : : : : :

Piling back into the car, James asked his parents, "Can Sirius and Pete and Remus sleep over tonight?"

"I don't see why not," Mrs. Potter replied, glancing at Mr. Potter for affirmation. "When we get home you three can contact your parents and ask for permission."

: : : : : :

"Can you boys help set up everything outside?" Mrs. Potter asked them as they were heading out through the kitchen.

"Sure, Mum; what do you need us to do?"

"Take out the plates, cutlery, napkins and glasses...and could you make sure your father gets the good chairs, James? Not the plastic ones."

"Yeah, yeah; okay." James grabbed the white and blue plates from the counter (but not without a "Don't you darn break them!" from his mother) and headed out of the door.

Mrs. Potter handed Remus the wooden box in which the cutlery was held, and then she pointed out the napkins to Peter and monitored Sirius with narrowed eyes as he stacked three glasses into each other to hold in each hand.

Remus followed Peter down the stone walkway to the Potters' backyard where the picnic table was set up. He set the box on the table opened it as he was watching Sirius with raised eyebrows (Sirius was humming an off-tune song as he placed the glasses with exaggerated care next to each of the plates that James had already put out), and then reached in to pull out the forks.

As his hand closed over the cutlery, Remus felt a sharp burning sensation on his palm and fingers, startling him so much that he cried out and dropped the forks, jolted the box off of the table and stepped backwards, tripping over his own feet so that he fell hard on his behind. The silver spoons, forks and knives clattered to the grass around him. He clutched his stinging hand to his chest.

"Remus!" Sirius exclaimed, quickly putting the last cup on the table and rushing over. "What happened?"

"I—I think I cut myself," he lied, still staring at the silver that surrounded him.

"What's going on? I thought I heard a shout," Mrs. Potter came running out of the house looking worried.

"Remus accidentally cut himself," Sirius told her.

Mrs. Potter hissed in sympathy, and then crouched down next to Remus. "You'll be alright. Let me see it, and I'll get you all patched up in a second. Sirius, will you pick all of the cutlery up and ask David to clean it before you set them out again?" She pulled Remus to his feet—he instantly jumped away from the scattering of the silver utensils—and asked to look at his hand.

Remus bit his lip. If he let her see, she would know! She would figure out what he was—wouldn't she?" He held his burning hand even tighter against his chest, his eyes betraying the deep fear inside him.

Mrs. Potter didn't understand his reaction. "It's alright, Remus, dear. I won't hurt you. I just want to help. Let me see your hand."

Remus glanced at the cutlery that Sirius was piling onto the table, and then he realized that he would have to touch them again once Mr. Potter had cleaned them. He would have to eat off of the silver.

"I can't," he whispered to himself in fright. "I can't."

"What can't you do?" Mrs. Potter was becoming very concerned. "Why don't we go inside?" she offered.

Remus looked back at her a little unsure, and then he nodded. "A-alright."

He followed Mrs. Potter back into the house and into the bathroom, where she instructed him to wash his hand. Remus turned on the cold water and put both hands into the water so that Mrs. Potter could not see the angry red marks on his palm and fingers. He hissed when she turned the hot water on and the cold down. He yanked his dripping hands away when she tried to look at his injured hand.

"No!" he exclaimed before he knew what he was doing. "I'm fine," he lied again. "It stopped bleeding. I don't need any help." He pushed past a shocked Mrs. Potter and went back outside.

He shrugged off Sirius's inquiries as to his injury and sat down at his place at the table, wondering what he should do about the silver utensils.

"Ah, there you are, Anne," Mr. Potter spoke as Mrs. Potter finally came back outside, carrying and levitating the dishes of food.

As Mr. Potter dished out helpings to everyone, Remus picked up his napkin and carefully wrapped it around his hand. Then he gingerly picked up his fork, making sure that his fingers didn't touch the metal. Though he could sense the danger millimeters away from his skin, he did not feel the burn of the silver. He mentally breathed a sigh of relief.

: : : : : :

As Sirius slowly fell asleep, he noticed that Remus's injured hand was lying face up on the blanket Remus was using, and Sirius could see reddish marks on the skin. He frowned and sat up halfway. Pushing his blankets aside, Sirius quietly crawled over to Remus's side and peered through the dark at his hand.

_I thought he said he cut himself, _Sirius silently mouthed. _Those look like burns, though. But how could he _burn_ himself from picking up cutlery?_

Remus made a small noise in his sleep and drew his hand closer to his chest. Sirius decided that he wasn't going to figure anything out that night, so he returned to his blankets and shortly fell asleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

July 26, 1972

Jacqueline and Dorian looked up from their dinner as an owl flew into the dining room. Aubrey was too busy complaining about eating his peas to notice. The owl perched on a shelf that was on the wall and waited for someone to relieve it of its letter. Jacqueline stood up and untied the envelope from the owl's leg.

"It's a letter for Remus," she told Dorian, looking up. "Do you think I should open it? It looks rather short...just like James's letters when he is inviting Remus somewhere."

Dorian glanced at the door leading out of the room, as if he could see down to the cellar door, behind which his eldest son resided at the moment. "Well, if it is something like that, then we should let James know that Remus isn't able to come. I'm sure Remus will understand."

Jacqueline still looked a little unsure. "Well...alright." She flipped open the letter and quickly skimmed through it. "James wants Remus to come to a carnival tomorrow." She looked up. "I don't think he's going to be up to that tomorrow...."

Dorian nodded. "He won't be human again until early afternoon tomorrow. Write back. We can give Remus his letter when he's better."

Jacqueline found a pen and paper and wrote:

_James,_

_I'm sorry, but Remus cannot make it to the carnival tomorrow, as he is not well at the moment. Perhaps another day he can visit you again._

_Mrs. Lupin_

: : : : : :

"How can someone get sick in the middle of the summer?" James asked in bewilderment, throwing the note down on the table. "Ugh, I wish I knew what was going on with him."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "And during the year he's always leaving because family members are ill, but we've both seen his mum, and she looks even healthier than Remus does."

"I think he's hiding something."

"But what?"

To Be Continued....

A/N: Uh oh...you know what that means! ::laughs evilly:: But anyway, sorry for the long delay...and the shorter-than-usual chapter. Next chapter is basically all written, except for a few short scenes...so we'll see how long that takes me to do. Heh.

Review, please!


	8. Chapter 7: The Beginning of Second Year

Chapter 7: The Beginning of Second Year

"This cat isn't mad," said Black hoarsely. He reached out a bony hand and stroked Crookshanks's fluffy head. "He's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met."

- PoA, p. 364

* * *

September 1, 1972 

"Have a good year!"

"Sure, Dad. Bye!" Remus quickly gave his father a one armed hug and then stepped out of the car to join his trunk on the sidewalk. He waved as Dorian disappeared into the traffic to rush off to work. Remus turned back to his trunk and gave it a tired glance, his hair blowing in his eyes.

"Yes, so now I've got to lug you all the way to the platform. What fun!"

Just as Remus came through the barrier, the dark clouds that had been threatening rain for the past half hour finally broke, and sheets of cold rain fell from the sky. Within minutes, the platform was coated with slippery rainwater, and Remus was soaked to the skin. It didn't help that he wore only a pair of faded jeans and a dark gray long-sleeved shirt. Remus slipped several times on the wet stone platform and banged his knee on his trunk once or twice as he grabbed it to stay balanced. The wind really wasn't helping much.

He managed to levitate his trunk and send it onto the closest car. However, as he reached for the railing of the car, the train whistle blew, startling him with its painfully high pitch and causing him to slip again. This time, he fell backwards onto the platform, knocking the wind out of him.

A moment later, he found himself being pulled up and tumbling onto the train as Sirius seized his wrists from the door. Remus shook his head in a similar fashion to a dog, spraying Sirius with water.

"Jeez!" Sirius exclaimed as he began to tug at Remus's trunk. "You're soaked all the way through!"

And so he was; he could tell by the way his clothes were uncomfortably sticking to him.

"Are you planning on staying that way for the whole ride? None of us know drying spells yet—though I've been taught one, I highly doubt you want me to try it on you."

Remus took one side of the trunk and lifted it, helping Sirius carry it down the corridor. "I guess I can find some clothes to change into," he replied, shrugging. Water dripped down his face, streaming from his drenched hair. They stopped at a door, and Sirius kicked it a few times until James slid it open.

Just then, the second whistle blew, and Remus stumbled into Sirius, who in turn banged his head on the doorframe. James was able to remain standing, as he still clutched the door. Once everyone had steadied himself, Sirius and Remus shoved the trunk into the compartment, and then entered it as well.

As Remus sat down on a seat (still dripping), he noticed that there was a square basket on the seat next to him, and it had a door and vents.

"What is that?"

"Huh? Oh!" Sirius walked over and picked up the basket, setting it down on his lap as he sat down. Then he tilted the basket up—there was an odd sound of scratching inside—and then opened the door, reaching inside. A moment later, he pulled out a small gray kitten.

"You got a _kitten_?" Remus asked in disbelief. "The poor thing. It's going to live an awful life, because you won't pay attention to it."

Sirius's mouth dropped open. "I will _too_ pay attention to her! I mean, she's this little fuzzball that—"

James snickered. "So this is Sirius Black's soft spot. Kittens. Oh, this is priceless."

Remus took the kitten from Sirius and held her on his lap, gently petting her. "What's her name?"

Sirius leaned back in his seat and shrugged. "Doesn't have one yet. I'm not too good with names, you see. I haven't a clue of what to call her."

Remus laughed and rolled his eyes. "Don't have children, then," he commented dryly. "Either that, or let your wife name them."

Peter and James laughed, while Sirius sent Remus a looking that clearly said, "You may _think_ you're funny, but you're not funny at all, you little twat."

"Well, then, how about we try to figure out a name for her?"

Sirius nodded. "Sounds good. But it better be a good name. Not something stupid like Fluffy or Shnookums, or—what are you laughing at?" he glared at Remus, who was snickering behind his hand.

"_Sh_-_shnookums_?!"

The kitten gave a little sound of protest from being jostled around so much. Sirius reached forward and snatched her away from Remus.

"Well, _you're_ not going to be naming her now, just for that," he said with a fake pout.

* * *

Remus was starting to fall asleep that night when he thought his heard something. He went tense, staring at the curtains that closed off his bed from the rest of the room, and he noticed that they seemed to be moving. Not side-to-side moving, but they were just...shuddering a little, as if something was tugging on them from the outside. Then, to his slight shock, he felt the covers of his bedding tug a little, down near his feet. The curtain wasn't moving, but whatever had been tugging on them was now _inside_ the curtains, on his bed.

His stomach felt tight, and he sat up a little, bracing himself on his elbows. He could see a small, dark shape moving around down by his feet. He practically jumped when he felt it stepping on his left foot and then on his leg. He jerked his leg a bit, and the...thing...stepped off. It was then that he noticed that the 'thing' had thin tail that was waving slowly back and forth in the air.

He flopped back onto his pillow. "Jeez," he sighed.

He sat up and again and picked up the kitten, placing her by his pillow so that he didn't have to sit up to see her. Instead of just sitting or lying down by his head, she stood up again and stepped onto his chest to walk over to the other side of his bed, then to walk onto his pillow and finally sit down to bat at his hair.

"Why aren't you bothering Sirius, eh?" he murmured. "Or did he toss you out? Not a big surprise. Ow, don't do that—oh, Merlin. Can't you stop that?" He reached up and pulled her away from his head, as she had gotten her paw tangled in his hair. However, she was going to have none of that.

She walked up to his shoulder, touched her tiny wet nose to his chin a few times, as if testing to see if he would bite her, and then she climbed across his neck...and then stepped onto his face.

"Ahh, get off!" Remus hissed, snatching her up again. He held her up, seeing her large eyes staring intently at him in the dark. "Oh, bugger you." He let her fall back onto his chest. When she jumped off of him, he rolled onto his side and watched her playing with the edge of his sheet. On a whim, he moved his hand into her view and started tapping his fingers on the mattress. She instantly noticed the movement and pounced on his hand, flopping onto her back as she swiped at and tried to gnaw his fingers. "Hey, hey; no biting." He took a section of the sheet and bunched it up before wiggling it back and forth to get the kitten's attention.

Once he had her occupied with trying to wrestle with the sheet, Remus turned onto his stomach and rested his head against the pillow, closing his eyes.

He groaned a moment later when he felt a small weight climb onto his back and then settle itself on the back of his head.

"Stupid cat."

He reached a hand up and moved the kitten back down onto his back. She stayed there for—maybe—twenty seconds, but then she journeyed back up to his head and settled herself between his shoulder blades and batted his hair around. Remus forced himself to ignore her, and a few minutes later he fell asleep.

* * *

In the morning, Remus awoke with an odd, pressing pain in the back of his skull. He groaned loudly, not caring if he woke anyone up, and he tried to lift his head.

It was abnormally heavy.

"Something wrong, Remus?" he heard Sirius's voice call from the other boy's bed. Well. _He_ sounded wide-awake.

Remus mumbled something incomprehensible that went along the lines of, "My hegd hurkhs."

"Huh?" The curtains were pulled aside, and then suddenly Sirius laughingly exclaimed, "_There_ you are!"

"Whuf a oo pakhin uboh?"

Sirius reached down patted the lump on Remus's head, and then he felt the lump move.

It was stretching.

"Geh ih off!"

"Alright, alright; don't have a fit." Sirius picked the kitten off of Remus's head, dislodging several locks of hair from her paws.

Remus instantly rolled onto his back and stared up at Sirius, who was holding and petting the gray kitten.

"She climbed onto my bed last night and was bothering me for ages before I could fall asleep," he complained to Sirius. "She was playing with my hair and walking all over me.... Why wasn't she with you?"

"Erm, I think I might have pushed her away after a few minutes of her nuzzling my shirt. She was getting it all wet."

"Great." Remus sat up and shoved the covers off of him, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and standing up. He slid his fingers through his hair, got them caught in a tangle, and then lifted both hands to angrily mess up all of his hair.

"Now she's going to always bother me at night because you shoved her away," he continued, searching through his trunk for a comb. He sighed and straightened again. "You got a comb I could borrow?"

"Sure. You better not have lice," Sirius warned when he returned a moment later with a fancy black-stained wooden comb.

Remus shot him a look and went into the bathroom to comb his hair.

* * *

September 1972; First Day of Classes

Professor Sprout, the short young woman who taught Herbology, led them around to one of the back greenhouses.

"Today we'll be in Greenhouse Three," she told them as she unlocked the door.

They were to learn about Mandrakes, a kind of plant that had roots that looked like ugly little children. Remus had read all about them in their textbook.

They all carefully placed the earmuffs on their ears; the four boys had managed to each get a pair of blue earmuffs, though Peter had a close call with a pair of pink ones.

"Ready?" Professor Sprout mouthed to the class. When they all nodded, she reached for the leaves of the plant in front of her and pulled them. Remus knew what it would look like before he saw it, because he had seen a picture in the textbook, but he _wasn't_ prepared for what happened next.

As the dirty little child opened his mouth and screamed at the top of his lungs, Remus's eyes widened, and he clamped his hands over his ears—he could still hear through the earmuffs! Apparently the earmuffs had been made with human hearing in mind—not Lycanthrope hearing.

Remus felt a strange sensation going through him...it was rather difficult to describe. His ears were pulsing faintly, and the edges of his vision were blurry and dark. As the Mandrake gave a particularly long, high shriek, Remus's whole body shut down, and he abruptly crumpled unconsciously to the ground, falling just short of hitting his head on the table.

Once Professor Sprout had successfully replanted the Mandrake, she gave everyone the signal to remove his or her earmuffs.

"That thing was bloody disgusting—it almost looked like Regulus when he was a baby," Sirius proclaimed to the others, but then he realized that Remus wasn't standing next to him anymore. "What the—where's—bloody_ hell_!" He spotted Remus on the ground and quickly crouched down to turn his limp friend over and pull off the earmuffs. "Why didn't they work?" he asked loudly. "He was wearing them correctly—_Professor_!"

Professor Sprout came over, glanced once at Remus, and sighed in annoyance. She muttered something to herself that James and Peter couldn't hear, but Sirius caught a few words: "...didn't think of that.... _They_ have such sensitive hearing...."

Sirius frowned in confusion, but before he could begin to wonder what she was talking about, she spoke up.

"Two of you take the boy to the infirmary. I expect you _back in class_; so don't even _think_ about skipping out to stay with him there. He'll be out for the rest of the day." She glared at James and Sirius shortly before turning her back on them and returning to the front of the greenhouse to continue class.

The two dark-haired boys shared a look, and then James shrugged and lifted one of Remus's arms to sling over his shoulder. Sirius took his other arm.

"Hey, Pete?" James stopped on his way to the door.

"Yeah?"

"Could you take notes for us if there are any?"

"Sure!"

"Thanks. You're a lifesaver. If Remus found out he'd missed notes, he'd flip."

Then he and Sirius began the long journey back up to the castle, trying not to let Remus's feet drag _too_ much over the grass.

"The first day isn't even over yet, and you boys have gotten sent to the infirmary?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed, glancing over the three boys.

"It was the Mandrakes, ma'am," James explained. "Remus dropped like a stone, even though he was wearing the earmuffs."

To their surprise, she simple nodded and had them place Remus on one of the beds. "Yes, yes, now go on back to class. Professor Sprout doesn't like it when her students miss lessons."

* * *

"Remus, you're back!" Peter looked up in surprise, smiling. "I made sure you got some notes from Herbology, and James and Sirius took care of your other classes. The notes are on your bed."

"Thanks Pete. Where are they, by the way?"

Peter frowned slightly. "I'm not really sure. They went off, saying that I should stay here and wait for you." He didn't look very happy about the decision.

"Ah." Remus sighed and then after a brief glance at Peter, he spoke again. "Well, I need to get all my notes together and find out what I missed. Do you want to come up to the dorm with me?"

"Sure. Would you like me to tell you about the stuff we learned in class? Some of the stuff isn't in the notes."

"Thanks, that would be really helpful."

* * *

Early September

The four boys entered the dorm to the sound of shredding paper. When they had closed the door behind them, they discovered that the entire floor of the dormitory had been covered with the remains of one of their textbooks. Right in the center of the mess was Sirius's kitten. She froze and stared up at them with her large, innocent-yet-clever eyes and then went back to tearing chapter 14 out of the book.

Sirius made an unintelligible exclamation and strode over to her, picking her up by the scruff of her neck.

"You, missy," he scolded, "are in a lot of trouble!"

The kitten simply stared at him and then mewed quietly.

"It's yours," Remus told Sirius as he found the cover of the textbook amongst the debris.

Sirius placed the kitten under one arm and took the cover from Remus.

"You're a little troublemaker, yes you are!" Sirius teased the kitten, lifting her into the air again before rubbing behind her ears and setting her onto his shoulder.

"You're just encouraging her when you do that," Peter pointed out. "She's going to think that whenever she tears up a book, she'll get more attention."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "First Remus, now you?"

"Am I the only one who is reminded of a faery when she stares at you like that?" Remus asked the others that night. The kitten was sneaking up onto Remus's bed as he finished his homework—she obviously thought he didn't see her. She inched along, waving her tail to and fro, watching Remus's every move. Or rather, she was watching every movement of the quill as it scratched over the parchment.

"A faery?" Sirius repeated, looking up. A smile made its way onto his face as he saw the kitten's prowling advances toward Remus.

"Yes, a faery." Remus narrowed his eyes as the gray animal wiggled her rear end and twitched her whiskers. "Faeries are usually up to mischief, and their eyes are big and dark and shiny yet bright at the same time—hey, stop it, you." He lifted his quill and parchment above his head as the kitten pounced.

The other three boys laughed.

"Anyway," Remus continued, "her eyes are a weird color—green most of the time, but when she looks at you like she was just a second ago at me, there's black around the edges, and you _know_ she's always up to something." He set his parchment behind him and waved the quill in the air in front of the kitten. She batted at it for a few moments before losing interest. Remus set it down beside him and picked her up to hold in his lap.

"Hey, I want to hold her," Sirius protested, standing up and walking over to Remus's bed. "Why does she like you so much anyway? She's supposed to like me best!"

"Remus is much gentler with her than you are," James spoke up.

"What? No he's not." Sirius reached down and picked the kitten up from Remus's lap where she was being petted.

James snorted. "What was he saying, Remus?"

Remus grinned. "Yes, exactly. Hey Sirius," he turned to look up at the boy who was busy stroking the kitten in his arms, "I think I might have a name for her."

"But I thought I said you couldn't name her!" Sirius laughed.

"Yes, I know, but it doesn't look like anyone else has thought of anything."

"True.... So what do you think she should be named?"

"Well...I don't know if it's any good, but I was thinking we could call her Fay. You know, short for faery. She is sort of like a faery kitten...."

Sirius looked as if he was pondering over it for a few moments.

"I suppose that would be alright...." He lifted the kitten up to look at her better. She stared at him and then yawned widely in his face, showing all of her teeth. "Fay." He tilted his head. "Fay."

"Well?" James prodded, looking bored.

"I like it," Sirius finally responded.

* * *

Mid September 1972

James glanced out of the window shortly before going over to Sirius's bed and roughly shaking the other boy awake.

"Come on! We need to practice flying so we can get on the team this year!" he exclaimed loudly in Sirius's ear.

Sirius gave an angry grunt and flung his arm out in the general direction of James's voice.

"Hey, watch it, you lug-head! Wake up!"

"What's all the racket?" Remus had woken up now.

"I want to go flying, and Sirius won't wake up," James said with a slightly pouting expression.

Remus got out of bed and walked over to Sirius's bedside, scratching his head absently. His hair was all in tangles. After a moment of observation, he grinned and turned to James.

"He's not asleep. He's pulling your leg."

"What?" James jabbed a finger into Sirius's back, and got no response. "He's asleep," he argued, his voice whining.

"You think so?" Remus raised his eyebrows. "He seems a little _too_ asleep. He's faking it." He yanked all of the covers off of Sirius. There was no response. "See? Faking it. If he had been asleep, he would have unconsciously grabbed the covers before I could get them, or else he would have at least shifted."

James was now suspicious. "What should we do?" He didn't bother to keep his voice low.

Remus smiled widely. "Well...I was thinking that I could get him back for all of the times he's given me very rude awakenings in the mornings."

James snickered. "Good idea. Can I help?"

"Sure."

"What're you guys doing?" Peter was now up.

"Plotting to ruin Sirius's morning," Remus replied casually. "Want to help?"

"Erm, I guess?"

"Fantastic. Take this, will you?" Remus handed him the sheet that he had pulled off of Sirius. Then he went off to find where James had gone off to.

He found the other boy behind his bed, rooting around in his trunk.

"Can I borrow your Gobstones?" Remus asked. He was handed them a moment later. He went back to Sirius's bed—Sirius was still 'asleep'—and carefully set the Gobstones on the mattress. Then he used his wand to spread a bluish, cottony material all over Sirius. It looked strikingly similar to cotton candy.

Somehow, Remus had a feeling that Sirius was trying to humor them, allowing them to carry out the prank. Remus would have to watch his back for a while after this morning.

When he was told to, Peter threw the sheet over Sirius, covering his whole body. There were several squirting noises, and then Sirius sat up with a yell, flailing his arms. The sheet stuck to Sirius, and it took a few moments for him to tear it off. There was stinking ink and melting blue cotton candy plastered all over the dark-haired boy. Remus couldn't help but burst out laughing, clutching his stomach and almost falling over.

Sirius gave a roar and leapt off of the bed to tackle Remus, getting the mess all over him as well.

"No-no-stop it!" Remus laughed, trying to fight Sirius off to little avail. By the time he got free, both boys were covered in the sticky, stinking mess. "This is disgusting," Remus complained, picking at a section of his hair.

"It's all your fault, so you shouldn't be complaining," Sirius pointed out. "Just goes to show you that you should always make sure your pranks don't backfire on you."

"Oh, so this was supposed to be a lesson for me?" Remus said sarcastically.

"Absolutely. When I get my revenge, you won't know what's coming to you until it's too late," Sirius smirked and then beat Remus to the bathroom to take his shower.

Remus groaned and sat down outside the door to wait.

* * *

When every one was finally dressed, the four boys headed outside. James and Sirius were both carrying their broomsticks—the new Nimbus 1001s that had come out in the past summer. Peter and Remus had no brooms with them. Peter didn't enjoy flying nearly as much as James and Sirius, and Remus did not _want_ to fly.

"I still can't believe you won't at least try to learn how to fly," said Sirius, shaking his head a little.

"Well my first experience wasn't very good—you may remember that one." He sent Sirius a look.

"Of course I remember that one!" Sirius was up in the air now. "How could I forget it? It hurt like hell when you crashed into me, just so you know."

Remus rolled his eyes and sat down on the grass a book in hand.

"You know that you're just ruining his fun by not raising to his baits," Peter told Remus in a lowered voice, sitting down beside him on the grass.

"I know." Remus smiled slightly. "He should know that he can't bully me around like he is able to do to those poor first years."

"He's not _bullying_ you," Peter protested.

"Then what do you call it? He sure doesn't act like that toward James."

"Yes he does. And toward me, too. That's just the way he is, Remus."

Remus sighed. "Well, it always feels like it's just me." He was looking down at his book, and his expression was rather unhappy. "I—it's just that, oh I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I don't belong. Do you understand what I mean, if only a little bit?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah, actually. Sometimes I feel the same." He smiled half-heartedly. "There are lots of times when you and James and Sirius are all having so much fun together, and I feel so left out. You won't tell them, will you?" he suddenly added, looking embarrassed.

"No, no, of course not. Just don't tell them what I said either, okay? It'll be our little secret." Remus tried to smile, but his cheeks failed partway.

Above them, James and Sirius were whooping and having the time of their lives as they zoomed all around the pitch, completely oblivious to their other two friends on the grass.

To Be Continued....

A/N: Heh. I wrote most of this chapter with a kitten sleeping on my lap. But he kept slipping off, since I was wearing shorts. ::laughs:: Silly kitty. But it wasn't this one who inspired Sirius's pet. It was his brother, who actually _did_ try sleeping on my older sister's face—and was thrown out. Poor kitty.

Review, please!


	9. Chapter 8: Coming to a Conclusion

Chapter 8: Coming to a Conclusion

"Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more."

- Mark Twain

* * *

October 6, 1972

"But...but I'm just an innocent bystander!"

Remus snorted softly. "Innocent? You've got to be kidding me."

"Aw, _please_, Remus; you've got to believe me!" Sirius pleaded, trying to break Remus's defenses with the well-known 'puppy-dog-eyes' look.

"Uh, uh, not going to work on me, Mr. Black. You should know that by now," Remus replied, staring indifferently at the other boy. "I know you were the one to switch Snape's limeade for pickle juice, and the one to coat the floor in wax so that he would slip, not to mention that you were the one to—"

"Well it didn't hurt to try," Sirius muttered, flopping down onto the couch beside Remus, since Peter was occupying the large armchair by the fire with Fay sleeping on his lap. "But you forgot one detail."

Remus raised his eyebrows, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "And that would be?"

"James was helping, and he was there at the right place at the wrong time, if you know what I mean." Sirius put on a fake grimace.

"Detention?"

Sirius nodded gravely. "Yes, me laddie; detention."

"But I don't understand. Weren't you there with him? Why didn't you get caught as well?"

A grin slid onto Sirius's face. "I _did_ get caught."

Remus frowned. "You did? But then...?"

"Well, unlike Jim, I confessed to my crime. I told her—McGonagall, that is—everything. I even put the waterworks on for her, just to show her how miserable I was to have done it, too."

Remus's mouth dropped open slightly as he stared at Sirius, trying to decide what to think. Then he started laughing. Peter looked over to see what was so funny, but didn't say anything.

"You told Professor McGonagall what you did, and then you started _crying_?" Remus asked in disbelief, trying to curb his laughter.

Sirius nodded, smirking.

Remus was clutching his stomach from laughing so hard. "I can't even imagine you crying," he admitted. "Did James know you were going to do this?"

"Nope!"

"How did he react, then?"

"Well...I wasn't really watching him. I was rather occupied with sobbing into my sleeve. But I did get a glance at him when McGonagall dismissed me, telling me to go get myself some tissues since I was so distraught. She, by the way, seemed quite concerned about my outburst." Sirius looked rather pleased with himself. "And James; he had this astonished expression on his face, as if he was trying to figure out if I was faking it, or if I'd broken down before his very eyes and turned into a sniveling girl. But don't worry. I made sure he knew it was all an act. However...."

"What is it?"

"I expect he's not too happy with me right now. In fact, somehow I have a feeling that he's cursing my name with everything he knows—which, knowing _his_ background, probably isn't much. I should teach him a few things," he finished thoughtfully, as if pondering the aspect of taking on a new apprentice.

"Once he's stopped hating you, you mean?" Remus added tactfully.

Sirius looked up. "Yes, yes, of course," he answered dismissively.

* * *

October 10, 1972; Early morning

"Not again...." Sirius sat up, grumbling as he walked over to Remus's bed and pushed aside the curtains. "Wasn't it this same exact day last year that this happened?" he muttered.

Remus didn't hear anything Sirius was saying, as he was far too busy writhing around underneath his covers and making anguished noises of pain.

"Egh, wake up, Remus," Sirius said loudly, taking him by the shoulders and shaking him roughly. Remus's head flopped around for a few moments, and then his eyes opened to stare up at Sirius.

"Wh-what?..." His eyes were still filled with fear, and he was shaking.

"You were having a nightmare," Sirius mumbled tiredly. "Didn't you have a nightmare exactly a year ago, too?"

"I—I don't know. I can't remember," Remus lied. "Did I?"

"Well...I think the next day was your birthday or something, so...yeah, I think so."

"Oh. Heh heh. How odd...."

Remus quickly wiped his cheeks dry with his sleeve when Sirius turned away to glance toward the other boys' beds. Apparently they had not been awoken this time.

"What was your nightmare about, anyway?" Sirius asked, turning back to look at him.

Remus bit his lip. "Erm, I don't remember," he lied again. "Look, can we not talk about this? I just want to get some sleep, and I'm sure you do too—see, you're even yawning," he pointed out as Sirius yawned widely and rubbed at his eyes.

"Alright, then. Well...happy birthday or whatever," he patted Remus on the shoulder. "Now you're twelve, like the rest of us," he smiled and then yawned again.

"Yeah...well, g'night—er, morning...eh, just go back to bed, Sirius." Remus dropped back down onto his pillow and pulled the covers back over himself, closing his eyes.

* * *

Late October 1972

"Alright. Where have you two been marauding _this_ time?" Remus asked resignedly, looking up at James and Sirius.

"Marauding?" Sirius repeated, as if puzzled. Then his eyes lit up. "_Marauding_! That's it!"

"What are you going on about now, Sirius?" Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Marauding. We can be the Marauders!"

"What?" Now James was confused as well.

"You know, like a club name or something. We obviously can't be the Demonic Duo, or the Terrible Trio...and I've been trying to think of something that includes four people...and 'Quartet' makes it sound like we're in a bloody choir." He made a face.

"Well, sorry I ruined your title," Remus replied in a deadpan voice, sitting back on his bed to prop his book up on his lap.

Sirius frowned. "You? Ruin it? How?"

"I make the fourth person, don't I? So I'm the one causing all of this trouble."

James and Sirius couldn't tell if Remus was being sarcastic or not. Sirius decided not to think about it. That was always a good plan.

"You don't _get_ it, do you?" He walked over to Remus's bed and invited himself to have a seat on it. "Now we have a name! The Marauders. And it doesn't sound cheesy like those other ones."

"It does _too_ sound cheesy," Remus argued without thinking.

"No it doesn't! Why does it sound cheesy?"

"What are you all talking about cheese for?" Peter walked into the room just then.

"Sirius is convinced we should call ourselves the Marauders," James told him.

Peter, unlike everyone else in the room (except Sirius, that is), seemed quite interested in the idea. "Hey, that's kind of cool! But...Marauding is like...stealing stuff, isn't it?" He looked a little unsure of himself.

"'Maraud' is plundering or making a raid—"

"Like of the kitchens," Sirius interrupted.

"Whereas a marauder is a rogue who does those things," Remus continued, ignoring Sirius.

"Hey, I think I like that idea too!" James exclaimed suddenly. "_We're_ rogues, Sirius!"

"Yep, yep! So we should call ourselves the Marauders! But we can't tell anyone, of course," he finished seriously. "It's got to be our secret."

James and Peter nodded. "Of course!"

Remus still looked skeptical, but he nodded as well. "I guess. It's not like this idea will hurt anyone, after all," he shrugged.

"That's the thinking, old pal!" Sirius grinned, giving him a very hard whack on his shoulder blades.

* * *

November 19, 1972

"Jim, can I talk to you for a second?"

James looked up at Sirius, eyebrows raised. "Why?"

Sirius closed the dormitory door behind him and came over to sit on James's bed, pushing Fay out of the way. She stretched and jumped off to go get a drink of water.

"You know how we've been talking about Remus hiding something from us?"

"Yeah?" James sat up straighter, lifting his foot off of the floor as Fay returned and began to paw at his toes. "Do you think you know what it is?"

Sirius looked nervous as he nodded. "I have a suspicion of what it might be; all the clues add up, but I don't want to believe the answer."

"What is it? Is it really bad?"

"Erm...well, I—I don't want to say anything yet, because if I'm wrong, then I don't want to..." he trailed off. "The _point_ is, if it's what I think it is, then Remus is going to 'go away' again tomorrow."

"Go away? What do you mean? Why won't you tell me?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. I just wanted to warn you, though. If Remus is gone tomorrow, then I'll tell you. Don't ask him if he's going away, though. He'll know we're up to something."

James sighed. "I wish you would just tell me. You know _I'd_ tell _you_," he said accusingly.

* * *

November 20, 1972

"Erm, you guys?"

Sirius's head snapped up immediately, sensing what Remus was going to say.

"I have to go home tonight until sometime tomorrow. My great aunt died, and I have to go to her funeral."

"Ah. Okay, then," Sirius replied, making sure he didn't glance over at James to see his reaction. "See you tomorrow then. Will you be back in time for classes?"

"No...I probably won't be back until the evening. But I'm not really sure."

Sirius nodded.

"Have fun," Peter said as a way of farewell.

Sirius whacked him over the head. "You don't have fun at a funeral, you prat! It's all about a dead person! That sound fun?"

Peter went white. "N-no! Sorry Remus! I didn't—"

"That's alright, Pete. I don't mind." Remus sounded very weary, and he was moving slowly. However, a minute later he was out of the room.

For five minutes, no one spoke. Sirius watched the door, and James glanced from the door to Sirius. Peter, having no idea that anything was even happening, simply continued to play cards with himself. Finally, James could take it no longer.

"Alright, Sirius. He's gone, isn't he? Tell me what's going on!"

Sirius turned to look at James at the same time that Peter did.

"What are you guys talking about?" he asked in confusion. Why did he always feel like they were leaving him out of the more important things?

Sirius stood up and went to get something from his trunk. That 'something' turned out to be a calendar.

"Remus keeps leaving school to go home, usually because his mother is ill, though there are times—like today—when there is another excuse. Then, during the summer, he became too sick to come to a carnival for a day. Also, I'd forgotten about it for a while, but do you remember back when we were all at your house for your birthday, James?"

"Yeah...?"

"He was putting the cutlery out on the table, and he dropped the entire box, then said he cut himself. However, that night when he was asleep, I saw his hand. There was no sign of a cut. Instead, there were several burn marks on his palm."

"Burn marks?" Peter repeated, frowning.

"Yes. Now, I have been trying to figure out what he isn't telling us, so I put all of the strange things together, and I came to a conclusion...but I wasn't completely sure of it, so, if I was right, I knew Remus would make another one of his excuses and then leave for a day or so."

"Aright, out with it already!" James exclaimed. "I'm tired of you beating around the bush like this."

"I think Remus may be a werewolf."

There was silence. Then:

"What?"

"What are you _talking_ about?"

"Look at this." Sirius handed the calendar to James, and Peter came over to look at it as well. "Those are the days and excuses for when Remus went away. You see how, _every_ time, it coincides with the full moon? And tonight is full moon as well."

James was flipping through the previous months. "I don't believe it—you're _right_. I never noticed what day it was, just that it was about once a month."

"And have you guys noticed how tired he is when he comes back?" Peter added. "Before, he seems nervous, and when he gets back he is always exhausted. I used to think it was just because when he was home, he was under a lot of stress because his mum was sick, but now it makes a lot more sense."

"But why wouldn't he tell us?" James asked, handing the calendar back to Sirius.

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Well think about it—each month you turn into a bloodthirsty monster. The wizarding community has never thought very highly of werewolves, as you two should know. They are considered 'dark creatures.' Would you want to tell everyone what you are? Now I understand why he's been lying to us all these months."

"And risk being hated by everyone," James nodded, understanding now. "That's what he was afraid of. That we'd turn our backs on him in disgust and fear."

"He seems to always make sure he doesn't say something that others might find offending—"

"And whenever one of us says something nice or just friendly to him," Sirius broke in, "he always acts much happier than the situation would call for, as if he is just happy that he is _liked_. Werewolves have been shunned for centuries; it makes sense that he would long for friendship like that if he was a werewolf."

"Wait," James suddenly spoke up, "I've just thought of something you said."

"What?"

"You said that there were burn marks on his hand during the summer."

"Yes. I think he went to grab the cutlery, discovered it was silver, and then dropped the whole thing in surprise. He wasn't looking at the box when he opened it—he was looking at me—so when he reached in to pick up the cutlery, he grabbed the silver and burnt himself. I remember also that he didn't want your mum to look at his hand."

"But didn't he eat with the silver when we sat down for dinner?" Peter asked.

"He was holding a napkin around his hand so that he didn't touch the fork," Sirius replied. "I didn't think much of it at the time, because I though he was just holding it over his hand because it still hurt."

"But I thought that werewolves had gold eyes and pointed ears and special powers and stuff."

"That's just a myth, Pete," James explained. "As a wolf, some of them have gold eyes...the pointed ear thing is just a tale, though. And as for the special powers...I'm not sure if that's true."

"If it is," said Sirius, "he probably has been controlling them so that no one notices. I wonder if he does have special powers? That would be really cool...."

"So...what are we going to do about it?"

Sirius sat down on the floor with a sigh. "I don't know. Should we confront him about it? Or should we just act like nothing is different?"

"I think we should tell him we know, and make sure he knows that we're fine with it—you guys are fine with it, right?" James added, glancing at both Peter and Sirius.

"Erm...sure. I'm fine with it. You're fine with it, right, James?" Peter forced a smile.

"Of course."

"Then it's fine with me...."

"Sirius...?"

Sirius shrugged. "Remus is a much nicer person than I'll ever be; I see no reason why that should change just because we know his secret. I'm fine with it."

"Good. So when should we tell him?"

"Not immediately after he gets back," Sirius said instantly. "If we did that, it would just be plain cruel, as he'll be far too exhausted to realize that we weren't deserting him. No, let's let him rest and then talk to him."

* * *

November 21, 1972

The following afternoon, Remus returned. He smiled tiredly at the other three boys as he walked up to where they were playing chess in the common room.

"Hi guys," he greeted shortly before he flopped onto the couch that Sirius was occupying. He drew his legs up onto the cushions and leaned back against the armrest, yawning.

"Was the funeral really boring?" Sirius asked lightly as he moved one of his pawns forward.

"Huh?—oh. Yeah, it was really boring."

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, they usually are. I went to one when I was...six, I think. It was dreadful."

Remus bit his lip and didn't say anything else. For a while he simply watched James and Sirius playing chess, with Peter rooting for James most of the time. However, soon his exhaustion from the full moon took over, and his eyes drifted shut. His hand dropped over the side of the couch, while his right leg slid down until it rested horizontally on the couch and his foot touched Sirius's leg.

Sirius absently pushed Remus's foot away, but then he looked over to realize that Remus was fast asleep.

"Good, he's asleep." He turned back to James and Peter. "When he walks up, and we all go upstairs, we can tell him."

* * *

"Remus?" Sirius tapped the other boy on the head. "We're going up to the dorm...you wanna wake up?"

Remus shifted slightly and then opened his eyes, looking rather confused. "What...?"

"You fell asleep while we were playing chess," James told him. "But now we're going upstairs."

Remus sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Why did you guys leave me sleeping there?" He sounded rather unhappy.

"You looked like you could use the sleep, mate," Sirius replied, steering Remus around the edge of the couch when he almost walked into it on his way toward the stairs.

Once they were all up in the dormitory, with the door closed, Sirius paused in the middle of the room.

"Remus," he began cautiously, "you don't need to make up stories anymore; we know you weren't at a funeral."

He saw Remus's back tense, and a moment later Remus whirled around. His face was pale.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded, voice shaky. "If I wasn't at a funeral...then where _was_ I?" His fists had unconsciously clenched and were trembling.

"I don't know _where_ you were," Sirius answered truthfully, "but I know what you were doing. It was full moon last night, Remus."

Remus's eyes widened, and his mouth opened and closed several times. "I—I—what are you talking about? F-full moon?"

Sirius groaned loudly. "Stop acting like you don't know what we are saying. We know you are a werewolf, Remus, and—"

Remus panicked and tried to make a break for the door. However, Sirius quickly dashed in front of it and grabbed Remus by the shoulders, blocking him from escaping.

"Let go of me!" Remus cried out, struggling against Sirius. "Let me go—_ow_!" He hissed in pain as Sirius's hands around his upper arms readjusted and closed over a bruise from earlier that morning.

Sirius instantly let go, afraid that he'd caused harm to Remus. "Sorry—I didn't mean to hurt you. But you've got to listen to us," he urged, leaning back against the door so that Remus couldn't get out.

Remus stepped back away from Sirius and then glanced quickly at James and Peter.

"You—you guys know.... How did you find out?" he ended miserably, finally giving up on any lies.

"There were several clues," James spoke. "Sirius was the one to really figure it out, though." He watched as Remus looked at Sirius, fear in his eyes.

"What are you going to do now that you know?" Remus whispered, looking down at his feet.

"Nothing," Sirius replied, and Remus looked up again, frowning. "We're going to keep your secret. Does Dumbledore know?"

Remus nodded slowly.

"Then we have no reason to do anything about it. The only thing that is different...well, is the fact that you don't have to lie to us anymore."

"I—but..." Remus looked very confused. "Don't you hate me now?"

"Of course not." Sirius stepped away from the door, trusting that Remus wouldn't try to run away now.

Remus didn't know what to do with himself. He kept glancing at each of them, only to see them grinning back at him encouragingly.

"I...I don't know what to say..." he trailed off.

James laughed lightly. "Why don't you get some more sleep, and then you can worry about it in the morning—and worry about all the work you missed!"

To Be Continued....

A/N: Well, that was fun. And it was such a quick update, too! Of course, that just means you'll have to wait longer for the next one. Because there's basically nothing written for the next chapter yet. This one I had been looking forward to for a while, so that anticipation helped me work faster. I hope you enjoyed it!

Review, please!


	10. Chapter 9: Getting Back to Normality

* * *

Chapter 9: Getting Back to Normality

"Trying to keep up with you  
And I don't know if I can do it  
Oh no I've said too much  
I haven't said enough"

R.E.M., 'Losing My Religion'

* * *

November 22, 1972

When Remus awoke in the morning, it took him a few moments to figure out why his stomach was clenched in the way that it was. Then he remembered the events of the previous evening, and he pressed the palm of his hand to his temple. He hoped it had all been just a very bad dream, but deep down he knew it hadn't been. He pushed aside his curtains.

No one seemed to be up yet, so Remus took the opportunity to take a short shower and get dressed. Deciding it would be more suspicious if he were to go down to breakfast without the others, he sat down on his bed to wait, scooping up Fay to hold in his lap and pet.

Peter was the first to wake up, and Remus didn't say anything, simply staring at his toes as he absently stroked Fay. She certainly was no longer the small kitten from months ago.

"Oh—morning, Remus." Peter seemed to have just noticed that Remus was awake.

Remus looked up and put a smile on his face. No one would ever notice that he was nervous underneath. "Morning, Peter. Have a good sleep?" He didn't really care about the answer, but anything was better than silence at this point.

Peter shrugged as he searched for a shirt. "Okay, I guess. I couldn't get to sleep for a while, though, because James and Sirius stayed, up talking."

Remus, who had been looking down at his toes again, lifted his head, his eyes sharp. "Talking? About what?"

Peter looked sheepish. "You," he replied honestly.

The blood drained from Remus's face, and his hand froze against Fay's gray fur. "Me?"

"Well...yeah. I mean, honestly, why wouldn't they, after—"

Sirius woke up, then, yanking aside his curtains and yawning widely. When his eyes landed on Remus and Peter, he stood up. "You—feeling better now, Remus?" he asked, a yawning breaking his sentence.

Remus put his hand to his temple again. "I don't know...? Remind me what happened?"

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "We told you that we know about your Lycanthropy, and said we were fine with it," he said shortly. "What do you _mean_, remind you what happened?"

"Ah," Remus nodded distantly. "Okay. Yes, I remember. It wasn't a dream," he laughed humorlessly.

"No, it wasn't." Sirius was speaking as if to a child that was being rather slow on the uptake. "Ohh, and I've got a question," he added suddenly, as he began to get his clothes together and change.

"A question? About what?"

"You know all the stories about werewolves, right?" Without waiting for an answer, Sirius continued. "Do you have any cool powers?"

Remus stared at Sirius in disbelief. "Excuse me? _Cool powers_?"

"Yeah. Like...like..." Sirius was having a difficult time trying to do two things at once—like pulling on his pants and holding a conversation at the same time. "Oh, I dunno...something that is different for you than it is for regular people."

Remus still couldn't believe Sirius would ask about something like that, but if he really wanted to know...might as well humor him. He racked his brains for the things that were different; he didn't really think about them anymore, he was so used to them.

"I can hear much better than you can...erm, and I guess I can move faster? I'm not really sure. I can sometimes sense things that a normal wizard wouldn't...."

"Like what?"

Remus shrugged. I don't know. Oh. And I can see much better in the dark than you can, I suppose. I don't really remember how life was before I was bitten, though, so I can't really say how different things are now."

"You can't remember? Why not? Is that part of the curse or something?"

"No—I was only five when I was bitten, so my memories are pretty fuzzy from before."

"Five?!" Peter exclaimed loudly. There was a snort from James's bed.

Remus nodded after glancing shortly at the noise. "It was on my birthday...which is why I have a nightmare on the tenth of October every year, Sirius."

Sirius blinked. "That's why? Wow...weird."

Remus shrugged. "I've been like this for more than seven years."

Suddenly Peter frowned at Remus, though not as if he was mad. It was more of a thoughtful frown. "You remember how last year, that bloke, Mordred, I think it was, used to give you those lollipops? Did that have anything to do with this?"

"Oh." Remus looked a little embarrassed. "Yes, it did. He was the only one, aside from the teachers, that knew about my secret."

"But what do cherry lollipops have to do with werewolves?" James had woken up at last, and he looked very confused.

"They weren't cherry flavored. In fact, I don't even _like_ cherry flavored lollipops." He laughed lightly and lifted Fay off of his lap to set her on the floor. "Those lollipops were blood flavored," he explained, coloring slightly.

"_Blood_ flavored?" Sirius looked quite grossed out. "But why would you want to eat those? You're not a vampire."

"No...but did you ever notice around what times it was that I ate them? I didn't just eat them whenever." At their looks of confusion, he explained. "In the few days before a full moon, my senses are magnified; much more acute. The wolf inside me knows his strength is about to overcome my own, and he fights to get out. The candies that Mordred provided me with helped weaken one of the senses—the wolf's sense for human blood." Remus tried to ignore Sirius's expression of revulsion. "So when I sucked on the lollipops, I didn't dwell nearly as much on the feeling of warm pulsing blood all around me. It is rather distracting when I am trying to study, you know."

"So that's why you were always so antsy at certain times," Sirius mused. "Because you were trying not to bite us?"

"Heh. Yeah, pretty much. I have to be careful this year, though, because I have no way to get the candy, since Mordred isn't here. I didn't really notice that until the first full moon this year," he admitted.

"Well, as long as you don't bite me, I'm fine!" James grinned.

A smile made its way onto Remus's face. "I'll try not to."

* * *

December 1972; a week before the holidays

"Watch your back, Lupin!" Sirius hollered, shortly before hurling a large snowball in Remus's direction. Not prepared for the sudden attack, Remus received the packed snowball hard in the face.

Wiping the icy snow from his eyes with his gloved hand, Remus tugged his hat closer to his head and then bent down to pack together some snow. A second later, Sirius Black got his punishment: a snowball in the back of his head...shortly followed by another down his shirt.

"Why you little—!" Sirius took out his wand and charmed several snowballs into existence.

Remus ducked and covered his head with his arms as all of the snowballs found their mark. "No fair!" he shouted. "You're using magic!"

"No one ever said I couldn't!"

Remus took his wand out as well. Soon snowballs were flying all over the place, some with targets, others that were just thrown out at random. At some point in the fight, James joined in, and miniature snowmen began walking all over, trying to trip up both Remus and Sirius. Peter risked tossing a snowball at Sirius—and then found himself as a target as well.

* * *

Dripping wet and rosy cheeked, the four Marauders trudged back up to the Gryffindor common room—leaving wet tracks all the way from the front doors for Filch to clean up—where they draped their clothes over the chairs closest to the fire, despite the complaints of their fellow students.

"So what're you lot doing for the Hols?" James asked as he sprawled himself over a large armchair.

"Going home," Peter replied. "My relatives are coming down this year."

"Ah. Fun," Sirius said sarcastically, and then scowled. "I've got to go home too."

"Me too," James and Remus answered simultaneously.

"Well, Hogwarts shall have to be lonely this Christmas, without us here to create disturbances," Sirius mused in mock sadness.

Remus raised his eyebrows. "It's not like we did anything to disturb last year," he pointed out.

"You ruin all the fun. Don't say such things, and nobody'll ever know!"

* * *

December 19, 1972; Early evening

"So, when do you have to leave?" Sirius asked Remus as they played chess. They had originally been playing Exploding Snap, but after Remus lost so frequently—he was unusually jumpy—they decided to quit and play chess instead. Remus wasn't doing very well at this game either.

"I have to go down late tonight, so that I don't oversleep here and risk changing in the dorm." Remus's knight began yelling furiously at him for sending him to the wrong square—the yells were short-lived, however, when his knight was knocked over the head by one of Sirius's pieces. "I should be back sometime late tomorrow evening or night, I think. I never can really tell how long the full moons last."

"But don't they all last the same amount of time?"

Remus shrugged. "I'm not exactly focused on the time, you know." He bit his lip a little, not even realizing what he was doing. It was becoming a bad habit. He frowned, trying to concentrate on the game. However, he kept getting distracted by everything around him. His heightened senses were grabbing at every little thing and pointing it out to him; he'd already been caught by Sirius when his eyes were glancing all over, searching for the source of the warm pounding blood, and his enhanced hearing was picking up conversations all around the room, throwing his thoughts off of what he or Sirius happened to be saying at the moment.

"—mus! Are you even listening to me?"

"Huh?" Remus turned to look at Sirius—he hadn't even realized he had looked away in the first place.

"You did it again, you know."

Remus sighed. "Yeah. What were you saying?"

Sirius just shook his head and waved his hand slightly. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"Hey, I'm sorry, okay? I can't really help it."

"Then maybe we shouldn't play anymore. You're losing anyway."

Remus didn't say anything. Instead, he stood up and went over to the large armchair and fell onto it, drawing his knees up to his chin and staring into the fire. Even though his friends now knew about his Lycanthropy, his life was basically still the same. Nothing had really improved, other than the fact that he didn't have to lie as much.

Later that night, once most of the students had gone up to bed, Remus stood up and left through the portrait hole. James and Sirius were asleep on the sofa; Peter had gone upstairs about an hour previous.

* * *

December 20, 1972; Night

Underneath James's invisibility cloak, James, Sirius and Peter crept into the hospital wing and went over to the last bed along the wall. The curtains had been drawn around it. Checking that Madam Pomfrey wasn't anywhere around, they pulled the cloak off of them, and James carefully pushed the curtains aside.

Peter gasped loudly, causing James to quickly press his hand against Peter's mouth. Sirius's face had gone pale, but he made no sound.

Remus lay unconscious on top of the sheets. From the way he was positioned, it was apparent that he had been placed there and had not moved since. There was a bandage wrapped around his upper head, and a few splotches of blood had seeped through to the outside. His lower lip was slightly swollen and had dried blood on it—it seemed as though he had bitten through the skin. Remus's pajama shirt was unbuttoned, and they could see several squares of gauze taped to his skin, along with another long bandage that was wrapped around his upper abdomen. One of Remus's pant legs had been rolled up to stay off of another wound that was on his shin.

Remus's lips moved, and a quiet moan could be heard from them. He shifted mere centimeters and then stopped, the effort too much. His eyes slowly slid open, and he gazed at the three boys, not really registering that they were there. However, after a moment his face contorted, and he tried to sit up—without success.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded hoarsely. "You aren't allowed."

"We...we came to see you," James ventured.

"We didn't think it would be this bad," Peter added, looking rather frightened.

Remus made a small, pained noise in his throat as he tried to sit up again, resting on his elbows so that he could look at them better. "It's always like this. Sometimes it's even worse. Today wasn't as bad as it could have been. But Madam Pomfrey heals me quickly. Speaking of which," he fell back onto the pillow as his arms gave way, "if she comes back and finds you here, you'll be in a load of trouble."

No sooner had the words come out of his mouth, Madam Pomfrey bustled out of her office and stopped dead, staring at the boys in shock.

"Oh my—what are you three doing here?" she exclaimed, hurrying over and trying to usher them away from Remus's bed.

"We wanted to see Remus," Sirius finally spoke, to protest angrily against Madam Pomfrey.

"What?" She turned to look at Remus. "Mr. Lupin, do you know what is—_good heavens_! Stay _put_, young man!" She rushed over to push Remus back onto the bed; he had tried to get up, but he ended up collapsing over the side of the bed because his limbs could not hold him up. As she helped him back against the pillow, the boys watched with wide eyes. They had never seen anything like it before.

Remus refused to look at them, feeling horribly humiliated by allowing his friends to see him so helpless.

"Can you guys leave me alone for a little bit?" he asked, looking down at the stitches of the sheets. "I'll be up later."

They nodded and left without a word, unsure of what to think.

* * *

James, Sirius and Peter were all still awake when Remus finally came up to the dormitory much later that night.

"You're all better now?" Sirius asked once Remus had shut the door.

"Yeah, pretty much. Madam Pomfrey patches me up again quickly," Remus explained. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that before. You needn't have come down to the infirmary."

"But we wanted to see you!" James protested.

"So? You shouldn't have seen that!" Remus didn't sound angry, though. He was far too tired to argue with his friends.

* * *

December 1972; First day of the Holidays

Remus sat on the seat by the window, resting his head against the wall while Sirius complained to James about how his cousins were coming to visit for Christmas. Remus had heard Sirius complaining about them several times before now, so he wasn't quite as intent on participating in the conversation as he would have usually. Besides, even if he had gotten a night or two of sleep since the full moon, his muscles still felt sore, causing him to feeling slow and want to curl up on the seat. He wouldn't do that, of course, but there wasn't anything stopping him from wishing he could.

"Ooh, look, it's snowing!" Peter exclaimed suddenly, breaking into the conversation. He'd been staring out of the window in boredom and realized snow was beginning to fall from the sky.

James joined him by the window. "I hope it's the kind that's good for packing snowballs. I hate the snow that doesn't stick together."

They continued to talk about non-important things for the rest of the train ride, only interrupted every once in a while by a sneeze from Remus. He had acquired a mild cold during his stay in the Shrieking Shack on the 21st. It was times like these when he wished someone would invent a potion for preventing or healing colds. As they were playing Exploding Snap, Remus was winning—until he suddenly sneezed all over the cards and they blew up in his face, that is. Sirius had fun laughing over that for the next few minutes while Remus attempted to clean the soot off of his face and get it out of his singed bangs.

* * *

"Remus! Over here!"

Remus turned toward the familiar voice of his father and saw the blurry outline of Dorian several meters away. He absently tugged Sirius sideways so that the other boy wouldn't walk into a lamppost and pushed his way through the thickly falling snow. He yelped as he slipped on some ice that was underneath the snow, and Sirius paid him back by steadying him. They'd lost James and Peter just minutes after exiting the train.

"Careful there, boys." Dorian had come to help, and took each of their shoulders and lead them to where Jacqueline and Aubrey stood underneath an overhanging. "It's really coming down now! It wasn't nearly as bad earlier. There now. Have you got everything with you?"

"Yeah...I think so," Remus replied, glancing down at his trunk. He turned to Sirius. "Are you going to wait here for your parents?"

Sirius nodded. "Bye. Have a Happy Christmas!" He grinned and clapped Remus on the back.

"You too. ...So Dad, how are you planning on getting us home? I'm sure the roads are a nightmare."

"Oh, we're not driving, love," Jacqueline replied, smiling. "Dad got permission to use a Portkey so we could get us all safely home. Have a good Christmas, Sirius," she nodded to Sirius before positioning Aubrey on her hip and taking hold of the torn-up newspaper Dorian held out. A few seconds later, the Lupin family disappeared, leaving Sirius alone on the platform to wait for his transportation home.

* * *

December 25, 1972; Evening

Remus's stomach was not happy. He lay groaning on the sofa in the living room, staring absently at the angel on the top of the Christmas tree. Never.... Never again would he eat three helpings of his mother's Christmas pudding cake. Too much chocolate, raspberries and whipped cream for him. Quite enough. He groaned again.

"Remus, dear, what are you moaning about?" Jacqueline walked into the room, absently cleaning the messy chocolate fingerprints from her sweater with her wand—she had obviously just finished cleaning up Aubrey.

"I feel like I'm going to hurl," Remus complained, sniffing slightly. His cold from a few days before still hadn't completely gone away yet.

"Well whose fault is that, I wonder?"

Remus scowled up at her grinning face.

"Feet off the furniture," Jacqueline added, lifting his legs up by his ankles as if they were a drawbridge and then sitting down. Remus shifted so that his legs were hanging off of her lap.

To Be Continued....

A/N: O.o Somehow I was listening to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" song, after listening to my favorite band (L'Arc-en-Ciel) sing it...and get all the words weird because the vocalist's Japanese accent was too strong. Heh. But I like that song...and then I felt like writing more for this story. How odd, yes? ::laughs::

But sorry for the long wait. School started up again on the 31st, and since then I haven't had much of a chance to write. I plan on taking my grades a lot more seriously this year, what with it being my junior year. ::sigh:: I don't want to think about it. This is my escape from life. ::smiles slightly::

Review, please!


	11. Chapter 10: School Problems and Summer V...

Chapter 10: School Problems And Summer Vacation

Sorry. No quote this time. Instead, you get a chapter that is twice as long as usual. (PS. Sorry for dying for two months.)

* * *

Mid January 1973 

"Mr. Lupin, may I speak to you for a moment?"

Remus stopped as he was leaving the Transfiguration classroom and turned around so that he was facing Professor McGonagall.

"Sure, I guess." He stepped up to the professor's desk and looked up at her, feeling nervous. "What is it?"

"I'm afraid that your grades are dropping. I am beginning to feel a little concerned. If this keeps up, you could very well fail this class."

Remus blanched. "I could?" His voice cracked on the second word, and he winced. "But…but I've been working really hard!"

Professor McGonagall laid a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, Lupin. I know you have been working hard. Now tell me; have you been confused about any of the things we've been learning in the past couple of weeks?"

Remus bit his lip in thought. "Erm, I don't _think_ so…. I mean, not any more than usual, I guess. Occasionally I don't understand how to do some of the assignments, but that's about it."

"Hmm. Do you think it would help if I gave you some extra help lessons so that we can find out what exactly the problem is? I'm sure once I know what the problem is, it can be remedied."

"That sounds good," he replied, looking relieved. "I don't want to fail," he smiled halfheartedly.

"No, of course not. Now…how does twice a week sound to you? Monday evenings at…is seven alright for you? You would be finished with supper by then, correct?"

"Yeah. Sometimes it takes longer because of the others, but I can leave early."

"No, why don't we change it to seven thirty. You need to make sure you have a good meal so you stay healthy, Lupin."

Remus colored slightly. "I eat just as much as James or Sirius do," he protested. "But seven thirty is fine. What will the other day be?"

"Hmm…what about Wednesday evenings, same time as Monday? Oh, wait—you have Astronomy on Wednesday nights, don't you?"

"Yes, but they don't start until ten or eleven. I can still do both on Wednesdays."

"Alright, I'll put that on my schedule; make sure you don't forget!"

"Don't worry; I won't, Professor."

* * *

January 1973 

"I'm not very hungry," Sirius sighed as he picked up a slice of buttered toast. He bit into the toast, chewed, and then swallowed with a grimace. "Yeah…I'm not hungry," he repeated, setting the toast back down on his plate.

"You feeling alright?" James asked, munching away at his own breakfast.

"Your eyes don't look very good," Remus commented. "They're kind of red and watery-looking."

Sirius grunted, shrugging. He placed his elbows on the table and then rested his chin on his hands. "What class do we have first?"

"Erm…Transfig," James replied.

"Joy." Sirius dropped his head to the table with a thunk.

"I think he's died," Peter commented around his strawberry toast.

Remus reached over and poked Sirius's shoulder. "Whoever is in there, go away and bring Sirius back, please."

Sirius batted away Remus's hand. "Go 'way."

They ignored Sirius for the next several minutes until they had to go up to class. Remus slung his bag over his shoulder and then tugged at Sirius's hair.

"Come on; time to go, you great lump."

By the end of the day, the Marauders had come to the conclusion that Sirius had caught a cold. The main evidence was Sirius's frequently sniffling and coughing, not to mention the box of tissues that he now carried around the common room wherever he went.

Remus picked up the box of tissues, intending on placing them on the table (instead of the armrest), but Sirius grabbed the box.

"No!" he exclaimed. "Don't take my beloved tissues! We can't be apart!" His voice scratched out almost halfway through his exclamation.

Remus raised his eyebrows and laughed slightly.

Sirius, however, just clutched the box to his chest. With a pouting expression on his face, his red nose was even more prominent than ever.

"Sirius, have you actually finished all of your homework?"

"What? Why do you want to know?" Sirius retorted suspiciously.

"Because I haven't seen you even working on it, and I wanted to know. I—"

Sirius was examining the box of tissues, peering into the opening, where he could see that the tissues were halfway gone. "It's like I'm eating the box of tissues."

Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Fay likes eating tissues…maybe she's rubbing off on me." Sirius grinned.

"…You have a very short attention span today, I've noticed."

Sirius sneezed and then groaned. "My poor, darling nose."

"I'm sure your darling nose will be fine in a few days," Remus replied as he rolled his eyes and watched Sirius toss another tissue into the wastebasket that had been charmed to empty itself.

"Oh, don't sound so optimistic. I know you're just trying to make me feel better. And it's not working, I'll have you know."

"Well sorry I can't help," Remus sighed, grabbing the box of tissues to bop Sirius on the head and then head upstairs to put his books away.

* * *

Late January 1973 

Yawning as he climbed through the portrait hole after leaving his extra help lessons with McGonagall, Remus spotted Sirius laying flat out on one of the couches in the common room, Fay curled up and apparently asleep on his chest. Sirius's eyes were also closed, but one could never tell if he was truly sleeping, or simply faking it.

Remus walked over to the couch and had to cover his mouth to muffle a snicker that rose within him: Sirius's mouth was wide open, and a bit of drool was on the verge of escaping it. His arms were held at odd angles, obviously placed that way to make the sleeping feline as comfortable as possible. Remus grinned and picked Fay up off of Sirius, eliciting a whining growling noise from Fay as she stretched and then cuddled up against Remus's shoulder and neck.

Sirius grumbled and opened his eyes, frowning slightly in confusion at Remus. "What're you…huh?" He mumbled eloquently.

"You were asleep, and I figured you should sleep in your own bed, otherwise you'll get a crick in your neck in the morning. Why are you down here anyway?"

"I was relaxing here, watching Peter make a fool of himself in front of everyone, and Fay decided to take a nap on me. She looked so peaceful that I couldn't possibly move her." He put on an expression of mock helplessness and then glanced at the cat in Remus's arms. "She sure seems to like you. She's already asleep!"

It was true. Fay had contently settled her chin on Remus's shoulder, her nose hidden by the longer locks of Remus's hair. Her tail was curled up around her left hip, and Remus was absently playing with the end of it, grabbing it back every time she twitched it away from his fingers.

Sirius sat up, stretching and mussing up his hair. "So how'd your torture session go with McGonagall?"

"It's not a torture session, Sirius."

"Oh, yes it is. You just don't want to admit it." Sirius waggled his finger accusingly in Remus's face as he stood up and wordlessly demanded his pet back from him.

Reluctantly releasing the warm body into Sirius's care, Remus just shook his head. "These extra help sessions are improving my grades. I'm not as confused as before, and I'm much faster at figuring out the spells."

"You could've just asked me or James to help you—"

"But you wouldn't help me even if I asked," Remus pointed out as they walked up the stairs. "You might help me at first, then you'd get frustrated, and then distract me by wanting to play Exploding Snap or something."

Sirius laughed quietly. "That's probably true," he admitted.

* * *

Easter Vacation 1973 

Sirius tore open his Easter package that James's parents had sent—they had sent one each to them all—and whooped in glee as he saw all of the goodies. There were chocolate eggs, both decorated and plain, as well as the classic chick peeps that squeaked and chirped as you ate them. Bertie Bott's Every-flavor Beans littered the bottom of the package.

"Shouldn't you eat breakfast before you start on your candy?" Remus asked, watching Sirius bite into a strawberry cream-filled egg and get it all over his chin. Remus's candy had been set on his bedside table after he went through it to see what it held.

"Of course not!" Sirius exclaimed, trying and failing to wipe his chin off. He settled on looking cross-eyed as he tried licking the remains off.

James burst out laughing. "You look like an arse doing that—"

"Shut up, I do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Children! Stop fighting!" There was silence after Remus's outburst, and then everyone started cracking up, and Peter managed to get Remus to eat his peppermint-filled white chocolate egg before they went down to breakfast.

"You know, I was thinking…" Sirius mused over his scrambled egg several minutes later, "we should do something about old Remus's you-know-what problem."

"Excuse me?" Remus hissed, raising his eyebrows. "And what do you think you can do about it? You can't cure it; there's nothing you can do to make it better."

Sirius scowled. "Oh yeah? I bet I can prove you wrong."

Remus looked angry, though he was trying to hide it. "You'd better not do anything dangerous or illegal, Sirius!"

"Don't tell me what to do—I can do as I like!"

"You guys! Would you quit bickering?"

"Like you should talk," Sirius replied, going back to his breakfast.

* * *

May 1973 

"Sirius, what are you doing?"

"Hmm?" Sirius glanced up from the book he was hunched over. "Oh, nothing."

Remus looked disbelieving. "Really. What book are you reading? I don't frequently see you reading books unless you have to."

Sirius shrugged. "It's just a book I got from the library. Nothing exciting."

"I see." Remus let the matter drop, though he still glance over suspiciously at Sirius every once in a while as he began on his Charms homework.

* * *

Early June 1973 

Sirius had been listening to the new wizard wireless that he'd gotten for Easter from his uncle, and unfortunately—for the other Marauders, anyway—this meant that he would sing the catchier songs that he heard (and remembered). Usually these were the more annoying ones….

"Iiiiiii'm b'witching you to me miiiiiiiine, oh b'witching you to me miiiiiiiine. Yeh can't get away from me goooood looks, and me suuuuugar-sweet chaaaaarms—"

"Sirius! Shut up!" James snapped, scowling across the table at his best friend.

Sirius ignored him. "—and yeh knooooow I'll be right outside yer doooooor, eeeeev'ry time yeh step out. Yeh can't get away froooooom meeeeee. No, no, yeh can't get away frooooom meeeeee!"

"Merlin, it sounds like he's stalking someone," Remus muttered loudly to James, leaning across the table so that he could hear.

:: Days Later ::

Upstairs in the boys' dorm, the four boys were getting ready for bed. Sirius was humming loudly as he pulled a blue t-shirt over his head. Suddenly he broke out into song:

"Iiiiii'm b'witching you to be miiiine, oh b'witching you to me miiiine—"

James groaned aloud, seized the nearest object (Peter's pillow), and threw it at Sirius.

The bathroom door opened, and Remus walked out in blue and gray plaid flannel pajama pants and a gray long-sleeved baseball t-shirt. His hair was damp; he had obviously just taken a shower.

"What's going on?" he asked innocently.

"Sirius is singing again!" Peter exclaimed.

"—daaaaancing in the moonlight for yooooou! We'll be swingin' so faaaast—"

Remus rolled his eyes and walked over to his trunk to get out a pair of socks. As he unfolded them and was about to sit down to put them on, Sirius's voice reached an all-time high.

"—miiiine; my one and ooooooonly—!"

"_Sirius_!" Remus whirled around with a sock in each hand and advanced upon the singing boy. In one swift movement, Remus balled up one sock in his fist and propelled it into Sirius's face.

To any observer, it looked as though he had just punched Sirius in the mouth; however, that is not what he had done. Remus had shoved his sock into Sirius's open mouth, thus gagging him and cutting off any more of the unwelcome singing.

Remus froze, looking horrified.

James burst out laughing. "You sure socked him one!"

Peter joined in the laughter.

Sirius yanked the sock out of his mouth, holding it before him with an expression of utmost disgust on his face.

"I can't believe I just did that!" Remus exclaimed, looking between the other sock in his own hand and the one Sirius held. He groaned and dropped to his knees by his trunk. "Now I have to get a whole new pair out to wear! I should've used a dirty one."

Sirius scowled and wiped his mouth and tongue off on a section of his t-shirt.

"And I thought for a second you were having a guilty conscience," he spat, throwing the sock back at Remus, who jumped away from it in revulsion. "The clean one was bad enough! Blagh!"

He sat down on the edge of his bed cross-legged and contented himself with glaring at the boy who was pulling out a pair of light blue socks.

"Just what did you put in that thing anyway?" he asked, not realizing how stupid the question sounded aloud.

Remus rolled his eyes as he began to slide on one sock. "Only this, Sirius," he replied bluntly, lifting his bare right foot and sticking it in Sirius's face. "It's called a foo—_Sirius_!" he yelped as his foot was grabbed roughly, and he was pulled along the floor for a couple feet, hitting his head on the ground as he fell backwards.

"Let me see this," Sirius demanded, examining Remus's bare foot as if it was some sordid specimen. "Yep, definitely foul. Just when was the last time you washed your feet, Lupin?"

Remus had on an expression split between annoyance and amusement. "Not five minutes ago, _Black_.... Note the hair…?" he gestured to his still damp hair. "Now could you please let go?"

"Absolutely not," Sirius responded immediately, and tugged on his foot, poking each toe with his index finger.

Grumbling and leaning back on his elbows, Remus turned to James. "Help me, will you? He's _your_ best friend!"

But James only laughed and climbed onto his own bed. "Sorry mate, but it's a nice change from his god-awful singing. I'd rather keep him amused for the time being."

"_Amused_?!" Remus exclaimed. "Well, that's bloody good for you – it's not _your_ foot he's ogling over!" He wiggled his toes to emphasize his point, and Sirius immediately clenched all of his toes together as if they would fly away.

"Ugh! Sirius!" Remus kicked him with his other, half-socked foot. "Let go of me, you twat! Ow!" He clutched his head as he hit it on the floor once again. Sirius had grabbed his other foot as well, and his sock fell off onto the floor.

* * *

June 1973; Train ride home 

"So what're you lot doing this summer?" Sirius asked, slumping into his seat next to James. "My family is going to France, but I don't wanna." He scowled.

"You're going to France?" Remus asked, sounding interested. "Why don't you want to go? I'd love to go there."

"Yeah, well, I'm not you, so there."

James just rolled his eyes. "I'm not really sure what I'm doing this summer. I think we might just stay home this year. My parents haven't told me about any vacations yet."

"How about you, Peter?" Sirius asked.

"We're going to Italy for a week in August. My mum's always wanted to go there, and this year we'll finally get the chance."

"Sounds very cool," Remus said. "And what're you looking at?" he frowned at Sirius.

"You haven't told us what you're doing," Sirius accused.

"Ohh." He shrugged. "I don't know. We never really do anything interesting during the summer."

"How boring."

"Well sorry my family isn't interesting enough for you, Sirius."

"Hey, hey, you guys. We're not even an hour away from school yet. Don't start arguing."

* * *

July 14, 1973

"_Mu-um_!"

"_Reee-mus_!" Jacqueline mimicked her son as she sliced the steaming coffeecake into pieces and distributed them among the four plates before her.

"But Mum, you don't _understand_."

"Actually, I believe I do. You want to sleep over at James's tonight, since he and the others are all camping out. I _know_ you want to, but the thing is, full moon is tomorrow around noon, and so if you sleep over at his house with your friends, you will stay up all night and then not want to wake up early in the morning."

"I promise I'll go to sleep early!"

"Oh, Remus. I want to, I really do, but—"

"Then let me stay over! If you're so worried, then pick me up in the morning, saying that you have to take me somewhere before noon. _Please_."

Jacqueline looked at his hopeful face and sighed. "Alright. But I'm coming to get you tomorrow morning, and we're coming straight home."

"Yes!" Remus jumped forward and hugged her. "I love you, Mum! Thanks!"

She just shook her head and smiled. "Now eat your breakfast quickly; you need to be ready in thirty minutes to leave."

* * *

"Remus! So—can you stay over?" James wasted no time interrogating his friend.

Without answering, Remus swung his pack off of his shoulder and dropped it on the couch, raising his eyebrows and smiling.

"_Alright_! Good going!"

"How'd you convince her?" Sirius asked, sitting on the back of the couch.

Remus looked embarrassed. "Guilt trip."

Sirius made an odd 'tuh' sound. "Lucky. That wouldn't work on my mum even if I collapsed to the floor sobbing." He toppled off of the couch and grabbed James's pant leg. "Mum! Mu-um! Please let me go! I'll die if you don't let me!" he fake-sobbed, wailing loudly.

"How dare you act like a dirty old house elf?!" James shrieked, forcing his voice to go as high as it could without breaking. "Let go of my skirts this instant!"

Remus and Peter glanced at each other and then burst out laughing at the same time.

"Alright, who gave you two sugar today?" Remus asked once he had stopped laughing.

"Nobody—in fact, my mom won't even give me one finger-ful of frosting!" James exclaimed in a shocked voice.

"He tried to, you know, "Sirius whispered loudly into Remus's ear. "You should have heard Mrs. Potter—she almost cracked my eardrums. We had to take cover behind the couch. But she found us."

James nodded solemnly.

Suddenly Sirius's eyes widened, and a rather frightening (to Remus, at least) grin spread across his face.

"I've an idea," he whispered to them all, leaning over. "Remus, go into the kitchen and ask Mrs. Potter for some chocolate. Tell her it is essential for your health. It's half the truth, isn't it?" he smirked.

"And why should I get more chocolate for you? You seem wild enough. I honestly believe you two somehow already have sugar in your systems."

"You're talking about the way we're acting, aren't you? Well, that, mate, is not sugar. You want to know what that is?"

"Indulge me."

"That is our emergency hyper-ness, our backup sugar…and it won't get better until we have chocolate!"

"What's all this ruckus? _James_? You didn't sneak into the kitchen, did you? I thought I told you no sweets until after lunch."

James pouted. "But it's my _birthday_. How can you be so cruel?"

"Come on. Why don't you boys go do something besides lurk down here?"

James shrugged and gestured to the others to follow him upstairs. Remus picked up his bag, tossing it over his shoulder, and then trailed along behind Sirius.

James's room was exactly the same way as Remus remembered it from last year, except this time there were no sleeping bags scattered on the floor (though Remus's bag soon joined Peter and Sirius's on James's bed).

"So where are we sleeping tonight?" Remus asked, glancing around.

James grinned. "I convinced my mum and dad to let us to camp out tonight! And we're doing it the _Muggle_ way."

"Really?" Remus asked. "As in, with stakes and sleeping bags and hard ground?"

James and Sirius nodded.

"Sounds good to me," Remus replied, smiling. He jumped when he felt something furry rub up against his ankles, and when he looked down, he saw Fay. He bent down and picked her up.

"What is she doing here?" he asked Sirius.

"Do you honestly think I was about to leave her all alone at _home_? Regulus might've skinned her or something!"

Remus wrinkled his nose. "_Sirius_."

Sirius grabbed Fay back and held her up in the air by his face. "Then he would've chopped her up into little bits and fried her up—chomp chomp yum yum, yes, you'd be the tastiest thing he'd ever have—"

Fay simply stared at Sirius, purring and flicking her tail back and forth.

"You're in a really weird mood today, aren't you."

"Yep."

* * *

Around two in the afternoon, Sirius happened to be looking out the living room window, and he noticed the moon up in the sky. Frowning at it for a few moments, he turned to look at Remus.

"Erm, how is it that you're still human-looking when the moon is full?"

"Huh?" Remus looked out the window. "Oh. It's not full yet. Tomorrow it will be, though. That's why I have to leave before noon tomorrow. Don't worry. I'll be fine," he added, seeing Sirius's worried expression.

"If you say so…."

"What're you two talking about?" James asked, walking into the room with glasses of soda.

"Nothing," Remus said as Sirius opened his mouth to reply.

"Ooh, you guys are talking about my birthday presents, _aren't _you?" He nodded happily to himself. "Yep, that's what it must be."

"Okay, let's go set up the tent now!" James exclaimed a little later, jumping up from his spot on the couch.

Sirius jumped up too. "Yes, come on, come on!

Several minutes later, the four of them were outside, the different tent poles and stakes scattered on the grass next to the flattened, outspread tent. Remus was trying to read the directions, but at some point in time they must have been rained on or dropped into water, because most of the words had bled together and faded.

"So what do we do first?" Peter asked, playing with the hammer.

"First we need to stake the tent down on level ground."

They each took a corner of the tent and stretched it out, pressing a stake into the loop at the corner, and using their shoes to hammer in the stakes—except Peter, since he was the only one with the hammer. Then Peter went around and finished the rest of the stakes while James and Sirius tried matching the poles together.

"No, no—you have to match the colors together!" Remus exclaimed, setting down the directions and walking over to James and snatching the two poles away from him. "This is yellow; find another yellow one to match."

Eventually they got the tent erected properly, and by then they were all hot and sweaty from working out in the sun for so long.

"I wish you had a pool," Sirius sighed, wiping his forehead on his shirt.

"I could probably get my dad to put a spell on the yard to make it rain or something," James suggested.

"Except over the tent, though," Remus warned. "I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather not sleep in a puddle tonight."

Sirius laughed and patted Remus on the shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll make sure that your sleeping bag in is the pond tonight."

* * *

"…he opened the door, expecting to see his mother sitting by the window…but it wasn't his mother."

Peter's eyes were very round as he watched Sirius tell the story in hushed tones.

"The woman standing at the window had long, dark hair and was wearing a black dress that flowed over her feet like black blood flooding the floor. Johnny stepped forward slowly.

"'E-excuse me?' he asked. 'Who are you?'

"The woman turned her head, and Johnny almost screamed. The left half of her face was covered in angry red, disgusting wrinkled burns. Johnny stumbled back, fumbling for the doorknob. He couldn't remember even closing the door.

"'Hello, Johnny. I've been waiting to meet you.' She lifted her hand to touched his face—how did she get so close to him all of a sudden?—and Johnny's eyes widened even more. Her hand was dripping dark red blood, and her nails were sharp and jagged. Johnny felt something wet seep into his shoes and socks. Looking down, he saw a wide puddle of blood surrounding him. He turned around and grabbed the door handle, but it was locked.

"The woman's hands closed over his shoulders and forced him to face her. He backed up against the door, trying to get as far away as possible. 'Johnny…Johnny, where are you going? Don't you want to see me?'

"Johnny pushed her away and stumbled toward the window. 'Get away!' he exclaimed. '_What are you_?'

"'But Johnny,' she said sweetly, advancing on him. 'We're meant to be together!' Johnny felt like vomiting. There was blood everywhere, and the air was suffocating. The window was closed behind him.

"'Suddenly the woman's smile disappeared, and her face became blank. A split second later, she was standing not even a foot away from him, and her hand was raised. Before he could do anything, the woman's hand shot out…and plunged into his chest."

"Eeww!" Peter exclaimed loudly.

"Shh. Let him finish," Remus hissed.

"The pain was indescribable, but Johnny didn't need to worry about that, because he was dead within a few seconds anyway. Blood spurted _everywhere_. The woman's face had red splatters all over it. She yanked her arm back, pulling Johnny's heart out. The dripping organ was mutilated, and she squeezed it ruthlessly before dropping it and pushing Johnny's body through the window, shattering all of the glass. Then without another word, she disappeared into the night air."

In the silence that followed Sirius's story, they all heard footsteps on the grass outside the tent. They drew closer and closer until they were right beside the tent. They saw the fabric moving, and then the zipper began to slide up.

"Boys…" a woman's voice whispered softly.

"_Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh_!" all four of them screamed, grabbing each other's arms.

The woman began laughing, and James let go of Sirius and Peter.

"Mum! Don't _do _that!"

Mrs. Potter laughed. "You boys really shouldn't be telling scary stories this late at night."

"But it's no _fun_ during the day," Sirius protested, finally releasing his painful grip on Remus's upper arm when Remus began trying to pry his fingers off.

"Well, I don't need you all waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares…."

"Hey! We're _Gryffindors_!" James proclaimed.

Mrs. Potter just shook her head and smiled. "Well, then good night, boys. If you need anything, just come in through the patio door. We'll leave it unlocked for you."

The minute Mrs. Potter had left, they all turned toward each other.

"I wasn't scared one bit," Sirius bragged. "I knew it was your mum the whole time."

Remus smacked him in the arm. "Yeah right. My arm's going to be bruised because you almost wet your pants, you were so scared."

Sirius looked shocked. "What?! I was not!"

Remus grinned. "Was too."

"Well, you were scared _too_."

Remus shrugged. "I won't deny it. Sirius tells disturbing stories. I don't even want to know how he comes up with them."

A long while later, the boys had finally settled down to sleep, but none of them could get to sleep. It was cramped in the tent with them all laying down—there was much more room when they were just sitting in a small circle during the ghost stories—and Remus was squished between Peter and Sirius, with James on the other side of Sirius.

"I think there's a rock under my sleeping bag," Peter said suddenly, shifting around.

"Ow," Remus winced as he got an elbow in his side. "Peter, stop moving around."

"I wish we had a wizard's tent instead of this."

"Peter, stop complaining," Sirius grumbled, rolling over onto his side next to Remus.

"Shut up all three of you. Birthday boy's orders."

"It's not your birthday anymore," Remus pointed out.

"Wow, we've gotten Remus in a bad mood," Sirius hissed under his breath, though it was rather pointless to whisper, because Remus could hear him anyway—his senses were beginning to heighten, due to the approaching full moon. Sirius began to hum tonelessly, staring up at the ceiling again as he turned over onto his back once more.

"I'm bored," James sighed. He was interrupted by a snore. "Who is that?"

"Peter," Remus replied instantly. "Want to trade spots with me, James?"

"No."

"Darn."

"Too bad," Sirius consoled, trying to pat Remus's head, but instead just whacked his ears.

"Ow—Sirius, stop hitting me. _You_ wanna trade spots with me?" Remus tried again as Peter gave another loud snore.

"Erm…no?"

Remus flicked Sirius's head.

"Hey, that's no fair. You can see in the dark."

"I know. Sometimes it comes in useful."

"Will you two shut up? I'm trying to sleep."

"Sorry."

"Sorry."

Five minutes of silence passed. Sirius sighed and rolled over as he heard Jame's breathing even out.

"Remus—you still awake?" he whispered.

"Yeah."

"I'm bored."

"That's nice. Go to sleep."

Remus began to drift off, ignoring Sirius's quiet humming in his right ear. He stared drowsily up at the green ceiling of the tent. He frowned slightly as he noticed that it seemed to be lowering. It appeared to be closing in on him. The air was growing hotter and more difficult to breathe. His eyes fluttering halfway closed, he struggled to roll over onto his side, but then he gasped and sat up so quickly that the ground spun, and he fell over Sirius's legs.

"What the—?" Sirius sat up, pulling his legs free, squinting in the dark. "Remus, what're you doing?"

"Ughn. My stomach hurts. I don't think the cake agreed with me." Remus pushed himself up into a sitting position, clutching his stomach. "I can't breathe. Open the windows, will you?"

Sirius unzipped the flap that covered the only screen window of the tent. Fresh air flowed into the tent, cooling Remus's sweaty skin.

"Is that better?"

"Yeah, a little. Thanks." Remus crawled back to his sleeping bag, straightening it out before lying down on top of it.

"You sure you don't want to go inside and get something for your stomach?" Sirius could see that Remus was still holding his arm over his stomach.

"No. I'll be fine. Lie down." Remus didn't want to tell Sirius that his head now hurt as well. However, he didn't feel sick for much longer, because not two minutes later, his body shut down and forced him into sleep.

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Potter awoke to the doorbell ringing. Mr. Potter sat up and put on his bathrobe and slippers before heading downstairs.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he called. He opened the door. "Oh! Dorian Lupin! Good morning; come on in."

"Thank you. Have the boys woken up yet?"

"No, I'm not really sure. I just woke up, myself."

"Oh, I apologize, but this was rather urgent."

"Why? What time is it?" Mr. Potter glanced at his wrist and then realized he hadn't put on his wrist yet.

"It's quarter after eleven."

"Oh my. I guess it really was a late night for us all. Well, why don't you go out back and check on the boys? They camped out last night. If you don't mind, I'll just go up and get dressed," he laughed.

"Sure, go right ahead." Dorian went into the living room and then out through the patio door.

"Boys?" he called once he reached the tent. "Are any of you awake?"

There was the sound of movement from within.

"Huhh?"

"Whozat?"

"It's Mr. Lupin. I'm here to take Remus home."

The zipper of the tent opened, and James's head appeared. "Hello, Mr. Lupin. Remus isn't awake yet. Just Peter and I are. We were the first to fall asleep, I think. I can't really remember." He smiled and scratched the back of his head, making his hair even messier.

James moved out of the way so Peter could exit the tent ("Hi, Mr. Lupin. Excuse me; I have to go to the loo"), and then he went to wake Remus and Sirius.

"Hey, wake up, you guys. Remus, you're dad's here."

Sirius groaned and rolled over, only to grumble even louder when he rolled over onto a rock. He sat up and stretched. "I'm up. Whaduyou want?"

"Remus has to leave now. _Remus, wake u-up_…." he called in a singsong tone.

Remus mumbled something and curled up into a ball on top of his sleeping bag.

Dorian sighed and said, "Why don't you two come out, and I'll wake him up." Once both James and Sirius were standing outside the tent, Dorian crawled in and shook Remus. "Come on, Remus, you need to wake up. We have to get home before noon."

Remus's eyes slid open a little, but, as soon as he saw Dorian, he closed them. "Go away," he grumbled.

"_Remus_. Get up right now. You don't have a choice in the matter." Dorian wrapped his arms around Remus's chest and pulled him out of the tent, squirming.

"_Noo_. Let go of me. I don't feel well. I hate it when the ground is spinning. _Da-ad_!"

Remus's eyes were out of focus as he struggled against his father, half-leaning against him because his legs wouldn't support him.

"Merlin. He's got a fever," Dorian muttered, struggling to hold his son. James and Sirius watched with expressions resembling surprise. They'd never seen Remus act like that before. Remus was trying to claw at Dorian's arms, but Dorian's long sleeves kept him from getting scratched.

"What is going on?" Mr. Potter came outside with Peter following.

Remus chose that moment to exhaust all of his strength and pass out in Dorian's arms, startling everyone. Dorian hauled him up to carry, causing Remus's head to flop back lifelessly.

"We'd better be going. Where are his things, James?"

"My room. Hang on; I'll get them for you." He sprinted into the house, and by the time Dorian and Remus were in the living room, he had run down the stairs again with Remus's pack.

"Are you sure you need to rush home still?" Mr. Potter asked. "Shouldn't we wait until he wakes up again before you travel? Somehow I don't think he'll be doing anything today in that condition."

"No, it's even more important that we get home now," Dorian corrected.

"Yeah, Dad. They really need to go! Come on. You can use our fireplace."

"Well, thank you for having Remus. Good bye!" A moment later both Lupins were gone.

To Be Continued….

A/N: Erm…. Yeah. Sorry for the long delay. I hate it when that happens. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Don't know when the next one will be up, so just keep an eye out for it.

Review, please!


	12. Chapter 11: The Beginnings of a Solution

Chapter 11: The Beginnings of a Solution

"I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death."

- Leonardo da Vinci

* * *

September 1, 1973 

"Hey Peter! Wait up!" Remus called, waving to the blond boy walking toward the train with his mother.

Peter stopped and turned to smile at him and wave back. "Hello, Remus!"

"How was Italy?" Remus asked as he came up to the two. "Hello, Mrs. Pettigrew."

Mrs. Pettigrew shook his hand and then announced her departure, Apperating straight from the platform.

"So how was Italy?" Remus repeated.

Peter shrugged. "It was all right," he replied noncommittally.

"_All right_?" Remus half laughed, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "You went to _Italy_!"

"Well the weather wasn't very good, so we couldn't go to some of the famous monuments and such that we were going to see," Peter explained. "And I don't like Muggle museums. They're so boring."

"But didn't you visit any magical communities?"

"Yeah, one or two."

Remus sighed. "You just don't have interest in that kind of thing, do you?"

Peter shrugged.

"Let's find the others. Have you seen them?"

"Nope. They're probably already on the train. They don't usually wait for us."

Remus didn't miss the sulky note in Peter's voice, and though he didn't say anything, he could understand how Peter felt.

"Come on, then."

Most of the compartments on the train were filled, and Remus and Peter went past about ten compartments until Remus suggested that they look in their usual compartment. His guess was correct, and they found both James and Sirius sitting in the last compartment on the train.

"Finally. I thought you two were going to miss the train," James said in way of greeting.

"We still have plenty of time," Remus argued, trying to lift his trunk onto the rack above the seat. "You know, I just might drop this on your head," he mock-threatened Sirius, who was just sitting and watching him struggle with the trunk.

"You wouldn't dare." Sirius stood up and placed the palms of his hands underneath the trunk.

"You'd be surprised," Remus grinned as they both shoved the trunk onto the rack with a loud crash. A second later Peter's trunk was also up on the rack, for James had given Peter a hand with his trunk.

They all sat down, James and Sirius on one seat, Peter and Remus on the other. Sirius leaned back and placed his feet on the others' seat, smirking when Remus frowned at him.

"Showing off, are you?"

Sirius's grin widened. "I grew a whole four inches," he bragged.

"Some how I have a feeling that some of that height was achieved during the school year, but was never noticed…."

"Oh yeah?" Sirius took his feet off of the seat and stood up. "Get up. I want to see how much taller I am than you."

"Oh no," James laughed. "They're getting competitive!"

"Sirius doesn't need to prove his worth to me," Remus began, starting to get up, "—I already know he's a complete braggart."

James and Peter sucked in their breaths, making a hissing sound. "And Lupin makes the first blow!" James commentated.

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Really? Stand straight, young man, and we'll see who's the braggart."

"Sirius, I haven't even boasted about anything. How can I be a braggart?"

"Because I say so—how dim are you, man? Ho! Look, look, I'm a whole hand taller than you!"

Remus slumped back onto his seat, groaning in exasperation mixed with amusement. "Now you're measuring yourself like a horse? What will be next?"

"You know, I think I'm the only one who's grown any taller," Sirius commented thoughtfully, staring hard at James and Peter.

"I've grown an inch or two," James protested, scowling.

"And I have too!" Peter piped up, not wanting to be left out of the argument.

Remus looked around at them all and shrugged. "I don't know if I've grown, and if I have, I don't care. Why does it matter, anyway?"

James looked shocked. So did Sirius.

"Why does it matter? Why does it_ matter_?" he repeated, eyes wide. "Don't you realize—the taller you are, the more you can look down on all the annoying little first and second years!"

Remus laughed. "You were a second year only two months ago, Sirius," he pointed out.

"Shhhhh!" Sirius looked around as if checking for eavesdroppers. "Who knows who might be listening!"

* * *

September 1973 

The class clapped as McGonagall turned into a cat and then back into her usual form.

"Now, to become an Animagus, you must use a very difficult Transfiguration spell, and not all magical people can perform the change successfully. Not only is magic of great import, but also the mentality of the one going through the process. That is to say, there are certain steps you must go through in order to become an Animagus.

"Now, before you go trying this on your own, I shall warn you: no one may attempt the transformation process without notifying the ministry and registering as an Animagus. They take down your name, Animagus form, as well as the distinguishing features of your form. Anyone who does not follow these guidelines will be fined, and possibly even arrested, depending on the circumstances. I advise you not to do any of those things." Professor McGonagall paused and surveyed the classroom. Some students were carefully writing down every word she spoke, while others were simply watching and listening.

"For homework tonight I want merely one roll of parchment on the advantages and disadvantages of being an Animagus. This should not be difficult to do at all, so don't you go moaning about it, Mr. Pettigrew," she added sharply, when Peter sighed a little louder than he had intended.

* * *

Early September 1973 

"Look, James, I don't think we can do anything to make his Lycanthropy go away, but I think I might have an alternative solution."

"Well then, let's hear it." James tossed the book he'd been flipping through onto the pile of discarded books that was in front of Peter.

Sirius glanced quickly over his shoulder and then leaned over the table so that he could whisper to James and Peter.

"Remember what McGonagall was talking about in class a few days ago?" When the other two didn't answer, he clarified. "I think we could become Animagi."

"But that'd be _really hard_!" Peter hissed back, looking surprised. "What'll happen if one of us messes up the process? And how would _that_ help Remus?"

"Don't worry—I'm an ace at Transfiguration," James said confidently. "I'll make sure you guys don't screw up."

"And to answer your other question," Sirius added, "as animals, we could keep him company during the full moon. He can't have humans around, because he could turn them into werewolves too, but if we were animals…even if he bit one of us, nothing would happen—other than the fact that it would probably hurt a lot," he grinned.

Peter didn't look too happy about that, but after a moment of both James and Sirius staring him down, he swallowed and looked determined.

"Okay, let's do it. If it'll help him, then I'll do it."

"That's a good chap!" James thumped him on the shoulder.

Sirius smiled. "Now, we just need to keep this from Remus, because he's not going to be too thrilled about us becoming illegal Animagi."

* * *

September 13, 1973 

The night after the full moon, Sirius, James and Peter used the invisibility cloak to sneak down to the hospital wing to visit Remus. They hadn't been able to check in and see if he was there during the day because of classes, but they figured he must be there by now.

James carefully pushed the door open, and then the three of them tiptoed inside. Only once they were sure Madam Pomfrey was not around did they pull off the cloak. The room was very dark, and all that lit their way was the recently full moon that shone in through the windows. Remus was lying in one of the beds, asleep but moving restlessly back and forth. As they crept closer, they could see dark bruises on his face: one on his right temple, and another on his left cheekbone. There was evidence of a former bloody nose, and Remus's hair was all tangled, as if it had been twisted and scratched at.

"Should we wake him?" Peter whispered, staying near the foot of the bed.

"Well, we _did_ come down to visit him," Sirius began. "It'd be kind of pointless if he didn't know we were here." He reached forward and gently shook Remus shoulder after making sure there weren't any injuries on it.

Remus groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He squinted up at his friends. "What are you doing here?" he mumbled, his mind still not quite awake.

"Seeing you, twat," James grinned.

Remus smiled slightly and gingerly pushed himself up onto his elbows to sit up. Sirius propped the pillow up behind him and helped pull him backward against it.

"So what did I miss in classes?" Remus asked them, yawning widely behind his hand.

Sirius groaned.

"We come down to visit you, and all you want to do is talk about school?" James complained only half jokingly.

"Sorry. Well then…."

They told him in hushed voices how, during Potions Class, they had jinxed Snape and Rosier's ingredients to dance around and then throw themselves, all at once, into the boiling potion….

"—And then the whole thing just _exploded_!"

"The potion was all over their faces and fronts—"

"And then they started screaming—ah, it was so great—and boils began popping up all over their skin!"

"Great, horrid purple ones!"

They all were laughing, trying to keep quiet, though it was rather difficult. Remus's laugh turned into a cough, so he reached over to the bedside table and took a sip of water to sooth his throat. However, it only got worse, and Remus doubled over, coughing harshly. He soon gave up on trying to be quiet, because that was just straining his throat even more.

"Remus—" James started, expression concerned. They all froze when they heard footsteps from Madam Pomfrey's office.

"Mr. Lupin? Are you all right?"

In the midst of his coughing, Remus hissed at the others, "_The invisibility cloak_!_ Quick_!" Less than a second later, they all disappeared from sight.

Madam Pomfrey walked into the dormitory. "Mr. Lupin, what is it?" She placed a gentle hand on his back as he continued coughing. He began to hiccup as he coughed, eyes watering in pain.

"Shh, shh. It's all right. Here. Try to have a drink." She held out Remus's glass of water, which he took again and tried to drink out of. His coughing subsided a little after a few sips, although every once in a while he would cough and hiccup. Madam Pomfrey got up and went over to one of the shelves, returning a moment later with a bottle of something. She poured something into another cup, filling it about a fourth of the way up.

"Here. Drink this, dear."

Remus tipped the cup up and drained its contents in two swallows, coughing only slightly. Less than a minute later, his eyes drooped shut and he fell sideways onto the bed. Madam Pomfrey pulled the sheets over his arms and chest, tucking them around his shoulders. Then she turned and returned to her office.

Sirius, James and Peter stood there for a moment more in complete silence, unsure if the nurse would return again. When it became apparent that she had left for the night, Sirius spoke in a whisper.

"What do you think she gave him? It knocked him out!"

"It was probably some kind of sleep potion," James reasoned.

"But he looks like he's dead," Sirius hissed. "Look. He's not moving at all. Before when he was asleep, he was moving around. You sure she didn't poison him?"

"Sirius, stop being so morbid. Of course she didn't poison him. Why would she do that?"

"Maybe she doesn't like werewolves," Peter suggested.

"Shut up, Peter," Sirius retorted.

"Hey, I was only—"

"Both of you, be quiet. Sirius, she probably gave him a potion that makes him sleep easier. Sirius—Sirius, what are you doing?!"

Sirius had gone out from under the invisibility cloak and over to the other side of the bed. "Remus. Hey Remus. Wake up," he called quietly, crouching beside the bed, shaking Remus's shoulder. All Remus did was rock back and forth, unresisting.

"Sirius, stop it. He's not going to wake up until the potion runs its course."

Sirius sighed and stood up again. "Fine. I guess we can leave then." He went over to James's 'floating' head and joined both him and Peter under the cloak again. A minute later the door to the hospital wing appeared to open and close on its own.

* * *

Late September 1973 

Remus had a feeling that his fellow Marauders were up to something, but he couldn't tell what it was. And frankly, the fact that he was not being included was beginning to hurt. Remus wasn't the kind of person to usually let things like this affect him—generally he could figure out a logical explanation for things—but there was something strange about this time. To the best of his knowledge, his friends weren't avoiding him, and they weren't being any less friendly than usual, but whenever he would ask where they had been or what they had been doing—simple questions that used to be answered immediately with no problem—they would give vague answers or even change the subject (Sirius was quite good at doing that, actually, and it frequently took Remus a couple seconds to realize his question hadn't been answered.)

Currently, Remus was sitting in the common room on his usual spot on the sofa, finishing the last of his astronomy homework. Neither Sirius nor James—and not even Peter—could be found anywhere that Remus knew of. With one last scribble on his parchment, he rolled it up, sighing, and slipped it into his bag on the floor by the sofa. Deciding that they weren't going to show up any time soon—and it would be entirely foolish to go looking for them in a castle so large—Remus took out a book and began reading. About two hours into his reading, his three friends came in through the portrait hole.

"Hi, Remus," James greeted cheerfully. "Whatcha been doing?"

"Reading…. I couldn't find you guys anywhere," he said accusingly. "Where have you been?"

Sirius laughed. "Around." Well. _His_ reply certainly was vague.

Remus frowned. "Fine. Keep your secrets to yourselves." He picked up his book and pretended to start reading again. Even though they could see his eyes moving back and forth on the page, they knew he wasn't actually reading.

James and Sirius exchanged worried glances.

'What are we going to do?' James mouthed at Sirius.

Sirius shook his head. 'Later,' he mouthed back. He moved Remus's feet aside and sat down on the sofa. "I'm hungry," he then said aloud. "Who says we sneak down to the kitchens and get something to toast on the fire?"

"I do!" Peter immediately piped up, raising his hand.

"Me too," James agreed.

"How about you?" Sirius turned to the boy beside him when there was no contribution from him.

Remus shrugged and closed his book, laying it aside. "I don't see why not."

"Good. Then let's go upstairs and get the you-know-what."

The four of them trooped upstairs and into the dormitory to get James's invisibility cloak.

* * *

Late September (the next day) 

"What are we going to do about Remus?" James asked Sirius as they walked out to the Quidditch pitch to practice for the upcoming tryouts. James hadn't gotten a chance to tryout last year because he and the others were so busy trying to discover what Remus was hiding from them. This year, however, he was determined to get on the team.

"Do you think we should tell him?" Sirius suggested. He had considered trying out for the team, but then he decided that he didn't feel like committing himself to something that would take up so much of his time. "He's getting suspicious, and I have a bad feeling he's starting to think we're avoiding him."

"You heard it in his voice too, then? Throw me the Quaffle, will you?"

"Yeah." Sirius picked up the red ball and tossed it to James before mounting his broom.

"When should we tell him? And should it be all of us, or just—?"

"All of us. We're all doing it for him, right? So it should be something that is between the four of us. Hey, why don't I play Keeper, and you try to get it past me?"

"When?" James repeated, since Sirius seemed to have forgotten the first question.

"Erm…how about when we get back after this? That is, if we can find Peter before we find Remus."

* * *

After getting a hold of Peter, they went up to the dorm and found Remus lying on his bed on his stomach, reading and occasionally writing on a long piece of parchment. He turned to glance at them, and then returned to his work. 

"Hey, Remus, we have to tell you something."

He looked up again. "What?"

"Well…you know how we've been looking for a way to make your Lycanthropy better?"

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Yes…?"

James looked to Sirius for support.

"Yeah, so we think we might have found a way. But…it doesn't really heal you or anything…."

Remus frowned. "Then how is it going to help?" He groaned. "Alright, what is it? Just tell me straight out, Sirius."

"We're going to become Animagi for you."

There was silence.

Then, "_What_?" Remus stood up and stalked over to the three boys. "_Don't you dare_. You could get yourselves killed."

"Actually, we can't. The worst that could happen is that we get stuck in our other forms forever.

"Same thing," Remus frowned and shook his head. "No. That is out of the question. I'm not going to risk your lives just for my sake."

Sirius stepped forward and put both his hands on Remus's shoulders. "Would you just _listen_ to us for a second?" he demanded, shaking the other boy slightly. "You're not the one risking our lives. _We_ are. And it's our choice. Even Peter agrees."

Peter nodded, because it seemed the thing to do, with everyone looking at him.

"But—"

"We want to do this for you. It's the only thing we can do."

"Well I don't see how it will help _anyway_," Remus tried another tactic, shrugging out from under Sirius's hands.

"If we are Animagi, then we can be with you during the full moons. We can't be with you as humans, but we _can_ be with you as animals. You can't infect us that way."

Remus snorted. "I can still tear you to shreds," he pointed out. "With my luck, you three'll turn into a rabbit, a squirrel, and a pigeon." He grimaced. "Lunch."

"Ah, don't sound so enthusiastic!" James proclaimed sarcastically.

"Come on, Remus," Sirius sighed, "please don't tell us no."

"He said please!" James joked.

"Shut up, Potter. …Remus?"

Remus looked from one face to the other. They all looked determined, with serious expressions on their faces…. He sighed.

"Fine. Do what you want. _But_—" and here they other three began to look crestfallen, "—I'm going to help."

Sirius laughed aloud and punched his fist into the air. "Alright! I knew you'd cave in!"

Remus couldn't help it. He laughed.

To Be Continued….

A/N: Yay, Animagi! I can't wait until we get to fourth and fifth year…. But first we must get through third year.

By the way…I got an unsigned (there wasn't even a name on it) review for the last chapter that was giving me some constructive criticism about the timing of the full moon—and I appreciate it that you would bring it up, but the thing is, on July 15, 1973, the moon became full at 11:56 am (I got it from an astronomy site that had all of the moon phases from 1940 to 2000). Just because the moon is full doesn't mean that it suddenly has to rise at night.

I just wanted to clarify that. But whoever it was that gave me that review, I thank you, and hope that you will continue reading and enjoying my story. Happy New Year, everyone!


	13. Chapter 12: Noticing the Danger

Chapter 12: Noticing the Danger

"Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person,  
having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words."

George Eliot

* * *

Early October 1973 

"I can't believe I'm helping you with this," Remus muttered as he leafed through the pages of a large volume. "This is _illegal_."

Sirius snorted. "So?"

Remus raised his eyebrows. "_So_! If we're _caught_…" he trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging dangerously.

"But we won't be caught," James said confidently. "The only way we could be caught is if one of us tells, and we've already sworn to keep everything a secret between us."

* * *

A few days later, James tried out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He was antsy and bothersome for the next twenty-four hours while the captain, Ethan Crockford, was deciding on the players. Peter and Sirius kept up the constant "Don't worry, you'll get in" consolations, while Remus just shook his head and tried to ignore them all. He hated getting nervous about things like this, and he thought it was foolish that they were getting so wound up over it all. 

When Ethan entered the common room and posted a paper on the notice board, James jumped up and immediately went over to it, Sirius following close at his heels (so he might be the first to see the bad news, and protect James from his doom, he confided to Remus behind his hand while they were watching Ethan stick the paper up).

"_I don't believe it! I made it! I made Chaser!_" James exclaimed loudly to the room shortly before bounding back over to the sofa.

"Haha—I knew it all along!" Sirius sang as he slapped James on the back.

Remus caught his eye and sent him a skeptical look (complete with rolled eyes). Sirius, of course, chose to ignore him.

"This calls for a celebration! Let's go raid the kitchens," Sirius grinned as he leaned forward so the general public could not overhear.

"Sounds good to me," Peter chimed in.

"Absolutely," James agreed. "Brilliant thinking, old pal."

"Smashing. Hang on—Remus, aren't you going to congratulate your best mate's victory?"

Remus closed his book and stood up. "Of course I am, Sirius. I was simply waiting for a lull in the loud twittering from you." He smiled and turned to James. "Congratulations, James. Don't let it go to your head, though."

Sirius made a retching sound, and James rolled his eyes at Remus.

"Yes, Professor."

* * *

Mid October 1973 

Remus, Sirius and Peter noticed a change in the way life had become. James always seemed to be out on the pitch practicing for the upcoming game in November, and he liked to choose the most ridiculous times to go exploring the castle to make up for time lost. Frequently these outings were in the dead of night, and with the passing of the full moon on the twelfth cost a lot for him, energy-wise. Of course, Remus would never let this be known to his friends. It was enough torture knowing that he was so weak around those times.

The nighttime wanderings did turn out to be an advantage, though. The Marauders learned far more about the castle than in their previous two years. They had never dreamed there was so much more to Hogwarts, and these new discoveries added multitudes of possibilities to what they could do to cause trouble—which James and Sirius thought was the best thing in the world, next to Quidditch and sweets.

It was during one of these nighttime excursions that the four boys succeeded in getting themselves rather lost. Peter had stumbled through a doorway that most certainly had _not_ been there before, and the other three boys had quickly scrambled through to rescue their fellow Marauder ("from almost positive death or doom," Sirius was sure). It turned out that he had simply stubbed his toe, and when he leaned against the wall to examine his foot, he had fallen through.

"_Lumos_," Remus whispered, and the darkness disappeared in a flash of bright white light, causing all four boys to blink and squint for a second or two. "You okay, Peter?"

The boy in question nodded. "But where are we? I didn't know there was a—"

"_Secret passage_!" James exclaimed in a dangerous whisper.

"Pfft. Of course it's a secret passage," Sirius rolled his eyes. "And I think we should explore it. Find out where it leads."

James ignored Sirius's slight, and he nodded fervently. "I was going to say that, you bugger."

The four boys continued on through the tunnel, silent for the most part. They had been walking for ten minutes when Peter sighed.

"This goes on forever," he complained.

His grumbling went unanswered, as the other three remained quiet. They rounded a corner, and James swore as his foot fell through the air where the floor should have been. Sirius grabbed him under the armpits before he could fall very far.

"It's your own fault for not lighting your wand," Sirius grinned as James picked himself up off of the stairs he had slipped on.

"Oh, shut up."

They started down the stairs, but after not even two minutes had passed, they heard a sound somewhere in the dark.

"Remus! Put the light out!" James hissed quickly, gesturing wildly at the other boy.

Remus did as he was told, and they were once again surrounded by complete darkness. They all held their breaths without realizing it, listening intently for the sound again. It was the soft mew of a cat.

"_Mrs. Norris_," James hissed, referring to Argus Filch's year-old cat.

"Bloody hell," Sirius muttered, clenching his fists distractedly.

"She's gonna find us and somehow Filch'll know!" Peter whined.

Remus frowned, peering through the passageway at the dim image he was able to see. He knew his friends were virtually blind, though he could see everything fine—although it was as if he was looking through a black veil. Several feet ahead of James, he spotted the shape of a cat walking slowly along the passage, staying close to the wall as cats have a tendency to do.

The cat mewed again.

"Shit, it's getting closer," Sirius groaned, making a face.

Remus stepped forward a few paces, accidentally bumping Sirius—and significantly scaring him as well, though Sirius would never admit it—and peered at the cat. Something didn't seem right. Mrs. Norris would not have just walked calmly toward them, mewing like that. As the cat came a little closer and gave a rather loud and lonely cry, Remus realized that it was not Mrs. Norris, as they had all thought, but Fay. Sirius's cat had succeeded in finding them in the depths of the castle, where Remus was sure no one else even knew the tunnel existed.

Without saying anything, he crouched down and gestured for Fay to come over to him. She gave a happy gurgling growl and strode right up to him so he could stroke her head. Then he picked her up and carried her back to the others, who were still listening anxiously.

Sirius gave a muffled shout when Remus brought Fay over to him and allowed her to jump onto Sirius's shoulder.

"Ohh, I'm going to kill you, Remus, I swear, I will!"

Remus laughed as Fay rubbed her face against Sirius's hair, purring loudly as she flopped her body down to rest on his shoulder. Sirius petted her as he glared in Remus's general direction.

* * *

End of October 1973 

The last weekend of October was the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, and also the first one the four boys had ever been on. They eagerly planned what they would do once they were in the village. The two main places were Zonkos—the joke shop—and Honeydukes, a sweetshop full of decadent sugary delicacies that covered the shelves and counters and…. The point was…it would be better than heaven to the four sweet-toothed boys.

The morning of the Hogsmeade trip, all four boys were up early, getting their money and cloaks and hats and gloves all set for after breakfast, when they would be allowed to walk down to the village with the rest of the school—minus the first and second years, of course.

The air was brisk but not uncomfortably so, and Remus slipped his gloves off and into his pockets for safekeeping. Brown leaves littered the ground, soggy with the previous day's rain. Remus's shoes squelched unpleasantly in the muddy puddles as he walked beside Peter, following James and Sirius. The latter two were chattering about who knows what, and Remus didn't bother trying to listen, choosing instead to look around at his surroundings. He had never been to Hogsmeade before, other than when the train stopped at the station to let the students off and on during the beginning and ends of vacations. James had been to the village briefly once with his parents, and Peter had stayed in the Three Broomsticks for a weekend with his aunt and uncle when he was younger.

The boys wandered through the streets for several minutes before Peter complained of the cold, so they went into Zonko's to fill up their supply of mischief-makers. They spent a good hour in the shop, and by the time they left, all of their money pouches were lighter and they carried bags of jokes and tricks and a variety of objects that would make their teachers go mad in the months to come.

After Zonko's, they headed into Honeydukes, which was quite crowded with students. Within minutes Remus had lost all three of his friends and began wandering around, looking at all of the displayed candy. There was a chocolate sampling booth, and he took one of the small truffles as he passed by it. He was examining a bar of Honeydukes Famous Chocolate when he felt a hand hit his shoulder blade.

"Look what I found, Remus!" Sirius shoved a bag of something red under Remus's nose.

"Sirius, what—I can't—" Remus snatched the bag out of Sirius's hand and held it far enough away so he could actually see what it was. It was a bag of the blood-flavored lollipops that Mordred used to bring him back in first year.

"James saw those and we remembered how much you used to eat them," Sirius grinned. "You lasted all during second year without them, though."

Remus laughed. "That's because I had no way of getting any, berk. Think I should get them, though?"

"I don't see why not," Sirius shrugged. "And if anybody asks," he added before Remus could open his mouth, "we can say they're for a top-secret prank."

Remus smiled. "Sounds good to me."

"Hey, can I try one? Since I now know about you-know-what?"

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Sirius, you won't like them, believe me."

"But I just want to try one…."

"Fine. But only one. And don't tell me I didn't warn you."

"Knew you'd cave in!" Sirius smirked happily and herded Remus over to where he and James had been—and Peter had apparently found James while Sirius was off finding Remus.

"Once we've bought everything, let's go to the Three Broomsticks for a drink," James suggested. "I really want to have a warm Butterbeer."

"Ooh, Butterbeer? That stuff is fantastic," Peter agreed. "It's especially good in the winter."

Remus bought the lollipops Sirius had found, along with a large bar of Honeydukes Famous Chocolate ("That'll last you a while," James laughed), a small pouch of honey-colored toffee, and a round container of strawberry mousse-filled chocolates. He was not the only one to fill his bag full of sugary purchases; James, Sirius and Peter also each bought several things from Honeydukes.

When they entered the Three Broomsticks, they immediately began to tug off their hats and loosen their cloaks; it was far warmer in the inn than out in the streets.

"I'll go order our drinks; you find a good table," Sirius told them, and Remus and Peter followed James over to a table in the back of the room while Sirius went up to speak with a pretty young woman with curly red hair at the front counter. Not five minutes later, he was back with two near-overflowing mugs in each hand. He set them down on the table and took the seat next to James.

"Drink up, mates. Enjoy it while it lasts, because before long you'll have to cough up your money." He grinned and took a long gulp of his Butterbeer. He took out the homemade fudge he had bought at Honeydukes and split off four pieces before handing one each to the others.

"Wow, this is rich," Remus spoke around the bite he had in his mouth.

Sirius nodded. "Yep. It's their best kind."

* * *

Early November 1973 

During the second week of November, the first Quidditch match of the year took place: Gryffindor versus Slytherin, as was the tradition. Remus, Sirius and Peter went out to the stands immediately after they had finished breakfast, ready to cheer James on. It was a good day for a Quidditch match; that was to be sure of. The sun was shining, but there were still a few clouds in the sky, so it was not blinding to the eye. It also was not terribly cold. However, Remus was almost positive that it was far colder in the air, high above the ground, than it was amongst all of the other students on the stands.

The game started off by the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle, the players shooting vertically into the air. Minutes later, Remus had lost track of most of the players' moves. He settled on trying to keep his eyes on James, at least, and simply listen to the commentator.

The Slytherins were leading by thirty points fifteen minutes into the game.

"Come on, James, show them your stuff, " Sirius was muttering to himself as he frowned out at the game.

A loud roar arose as one of the Slytherins shoved Ethan on his broom, almost knocking him off.

"Foul! FOUL!" the Gryffindors yelled at the top of their lungs.

Gryffindor was allowed a penalty shot, and Ethan got the Quaffle past the Slytherin Keeper with no problem. Now only twenty points behind, the Gryffindor team began to really push themselves. James scored two goals and missed one as a Bludger came out of the sky and almost smashed the front of his broom.

Corey Fallin, a fourth year who was the third Chaser for Gryffindor, stole the Quaffle from one of the Slytherins and scored a goal. Just as he threw it to Ethan to score, Lucy Dane and Julian Radcocke shot through the middle of the pitch, forcing everyone to scatter as they dove toward the ground, neck to neck—following a glittering golden ball. They were after the Snitch.

"COME ON, GET IT, _GET IT_!" Sirius bellowed as loud as he could, standing up in his excitement. Peter also jumped up and yelled along with the rest of the Gryffindors. Remus wanted them to win as well, but he saw no point in standing up and yelling about it, so he remained sitting.

Mere seconds later, Lucy pulled out of the dive with her left fist in the air, clutching the Snitch triumphantly.

"WE WON! WE WON!" Sirius yelled hoarsely, jumping around giddily and hugging both Peter and Remus before jumping down to get to the pitch and congratulate James on the excellent win. Remus laughed and followed.

* * *

November 14, 1973 

The Great Hall was much louder than usual on the morning of the fourteenth, Remus noticed as he sat down for breakfast. People were whispering amongst themselves as well as talking with raised voices when they started arguing with one another. Remus leaned to his side and hissed to Sirius, "What's going on? Did I miss something?"

Sirius snatched an issue of the Daily Prophet from the person next to him and handed it to Remus.

"Here. Read this."

Nonplussed, Remus flattened out the paper and began reading the article Sirius had pointed to.

_Mysterious Attack on the Minister of Magic!_

_Yesterday evening, while Crigelin Sorcenste, was sitting down to supper with his wife and daughter, a glowing object was thrown through their dining room window. The Minister and his family were not harmed in the attack, but the thrown object burst into flame when it shattered on their table and dispelled an unknown green fog. Sorcenste put out the fire before it could cause too much damage, but Aurors still have not determined the what the green substance is or its effects when breathed in. There do not appear to be any effects from the fog as of yet, though the Sorcenstes are under careful observation until the source of the attack is discovered._

"_I'm sure this was just some foolish wizard's idea of a prank, and it does not appear to be connected in any way to the Knights of Walpurgis," Sorcenste told reporters late last night._

Remus put the paper back down and glanced at Sirius. "So this is what they're all on about?"

"Yeah. I mean—it's the _Minister_ who's been attacked this time! What if…what if they decide to take over the Ministry, and force us all into slavedom?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Sirius. Slavedom? You've got to be kidding me." He paused. "They'd kill us all before they decide to actually make use of the people."

"What?" James joined the conversation.

"Well, that seems to be all they are doing, right?" Remus looked at both him and Peter as well. "They only seem to be interested in killing people—or bringing people over to their side."

"I guess you're right…. Though that's not any more pleasant than slavedom," Sirius pointed out.

"Sirius, slavedom is not a word."

"Piss off."

* * *

November 1973 

Sirius bent down and scooped up a handful of snow in his bare hands, molding it into a ball. Then, without any warning, he hurled it at the back of James's head.

"_Hey_!"

Within minutes a full-blown snow fight had begun, and none of the participants had on gloves. Sirius did not even have his cloak, and was instead wearing nothing more than a sweater and pants (and shoes, of course). He did not care about this one bit, though he would complain loudly to his friends much later about how his fingers were going to fall off and leave him with stubs for hands. This, however, was a normality in the boys' winter days. A pepper-up potion cut off the possibility of a cold, and not even a week later they would be outside in the cold again.

Sometimes people just don't learn, and common sense is a rare commodity in Sirius Black's world, Remus believed. _Remus_ made sure he had his cloak and gloves the next time they went outside, knowing he could fare far better in the snow wars if he was not distracted by the numbness of his body. This was a useful lesson.

When one is not freezing his arse off, he is _quite_ _a bit better_ at pummeling his friends with snowballs.

* * *

Christmas 1973 

"Here, have a cordial."

Remus looked up. "A what?"

Sirius's eyes widened. "You've _never_ had one before? Agh, they are so good. They melt in your mouth and are so sweet…." He handed Remus a small dark chocolate candy.

"This is a cordial?"

Sirius nodded.

Remus bit into the candy and almost immediately had to push the entire thing in, because he discovered that is was full of some kind of liquid. As he chewed, he made a face.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked.

"It has a cherry in it," he replied.

"You don't like cherries? But I thought you just didn't like cherry-_flavored_ things. You don't like cherries either?"

Remus shook his head and swallowed the sweet before licking his fingers clean.

"It was good except for the cherry."

"You're hopeless. You know that?"

Remus grinned. "Sorry?"

"You're not forgiven. I wasted one of my precious cordials on you." Sirius pretended to pout.

Remus had a feeling Sirius was going to start up on of his acts again, so he offered, "Well, you can have something of mine to make up for it. How does that sound."

Sirius began to look interested. "Oh? Like what? Candy?"

Remus smiled. "Yes, candy. Hang on, lemme get some." He went over to his bedside table and pulled out a box, setting it on Sirius's bed. "You can have _one_ thing from here."

Sirius made a big show of leaning forward and sniffing the box, as if to check for possible poisons. Then he lifted the lid off and gave a great, exaggerated gasp.

"_Wow_, those look good!" He examined each and every chocolate before finally picking a dark chocolate covered coconut ball. "Yum yum yum."

"Happy now?" Remus asked as he took a chocolate for himself and popped it into his mouth.

Sirius smiled. "Yes, I do believe so, old chap. Thank you muchly." He grinned widely before quickly snatching another chocolate from the box.

"_HEY_!"

To Be Continued….

A/N: Sorry for the very long delay. (I seem to do this every time, don't I? XD) Well anyway, I'm forcing myself to get through third year. Then it'll be pretty easy for me to get chapters out faster, as I have a ton of things already written for fourth year and onward.

Review, please!


	14. Chapter 13:Injuries & Warning of a Death

Chapter 13: Injuries and Warning of a Death

"What sticks to memory, often, are those odd little fragments that have no beginning and no end."

- _The Things They Carried_; Tim O'Brien

* * *

January 9, 1974

"It smells disgusting in here."

"_Ugh_. What _is_ that?"

"Shhh! Madam Pomfrey'll hear us!"

"Ah, shut it, Pete."

Peter pouted as the three boys snuck into the hospital wing to visit Remus. The previous day had been the full moon, and they wanted to tell him all about the exciting recent events that he'd missed.

Sirius pressed his hand over his mouth and nose as the smell grew worse. "If this gets any worse, I'm gonna hurl," he announced to the others.

"That's lovely," James replied sarcastically, wrinkling his nose and pushing his glasses up farther.

As they approached the end of the ward, they could see Remus sleeping on the last bed; the same one he always used each month. However, as they drew closer, they discovered that the smell was stronger as well.

Though Remus was asleep, his eyes were not closed completely, and it seemed like he was staring off into space. Dried tear stains ran down the side of his cheek bones. His mouth was halfway open, and they could see a mixture of dried blood and vomit around one side. There was blood smeared on the sheets and pillow, as well as the clothes that he wore. His diaphragm rose and fell in short, almost spastic movements as he breathed. His right arm was folded over his chest, his wrist held tightly between a pair of magical splints. There were long gashes running down his throat, and though they were healing quickly under the influence of Madam Pomfrey's special ointments, they were still an angry dark shade in the gloom of the room.

The three boys stared open-mouthed at their friend for several moments.

"I suppose we shouldn't wake him up, then?" Peter spoke quietly, trying to sound lighthearted, and not reveal the shock in his voice.

Before either of the other two could answer, though, the door to the infirmary opened, and Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey entered the ward. There was no time to hide under the invisibility cloak, so James quickly stuffed it into his cloak.

"Oh my!" McGonagall exclaimed when she saw the boys. "What in the world—?"

"Is Remus going to be all right?" Sirius cut in, stepping forward.

The two women glanced at each other.

"Well…he'll be in here for another day, I suppose," Madam Pomfrey said evasively.

Sirius sighed loudly in annoyance. "We already _know_ about him. You don't have to lie about his monthly trips to us anymore."

McGonagall gasped. "You all know? But…does Remus know you know?"

"Sure he does. We told him as soon as we found out."

"It was ages ago," James added.

"It's so much easier when we all know, because now Remus doesn't have to make up all those ridiculous stories about relatives falling ill. Anyway, what happened to him yesterday? This is worse than it normally is."

Madam Pomfrey overcame her shock a moment before McGonagall did (whom was beginning to actually look _teary-eyed_, to the amazement of the boys), and explained, "I'm not really sure. Either Remus was not in the best of moods before he transformed, or he was already ill, and that made him more susceptible to being badly injured."

"In a bad mood?" James asked, confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, Mr. Potter," McGonagall spoke up, "if Remus was angry before he transformed, the dark mood would have carried over to the wolf when it took over his body, and it would have taken the anger out on himself because there was no one else around."

"Ohh. Well, he didn't _seem_ to be in a bad mood when we last saw him," James replied.

"No, that's not entirely true," Sirius cut in.

"Huh? What do you mean?" James turned to him, frowning.

"Didn't you notice? He was quiet all morning before he left, like he was ignoring us or something. I think it might have had to do with—" he broke off abruptly, remembering that McGonagall and Pomfrey were listening.

"With what?" McGonagall questioned, frowning at him.

"Ahm…nothing. I just remembered that it wasn't what I thought," Sirius said evasively. He shot a warning look at James, who looked as though he was about to say something.

McGonagall did not even look like she believed one bit of his words, but she did not try to catch him, because at that moment Remus shifted on the bed and moaned softly.

"Alright, I want you boys out. I don't care if you already know about this, but he does not need three extra people watching him in misery. _Out_."

And grumbling, the boys left the hospital wing, to head back up to Gryffindor tower.

* * *

February 1974

"Hey, I need to practice Divination," Sirius complained one afternoon, lying on his stomach on his bed. He tossed a crystal ball from hand to hand.

"Leave me out of it," Peter muttered, rummaging through his trunk for a book he needed for Ancient Runes (James wouldn't let him borrow his copy). "I don't need to be _told_ that I'm going to fail the big test tomorrow."

"Alright then…Jim? How about you?"

James mumbled something noncommittal, and Sirius scowled.

Remus happened to glance up and fully noticed the crystal ball for the first time. "Where did you get that?" he asked suddenly.

Sirius immediately stopped scowling and gave a wide grin. "Snitched it. Ollicalisi will never notice. She's got plenty more anyway."

"_Sirius_," Remus sighed disapprovingly, "you can't just steal things from people because it seems like they have more than enough."

"And why _not_?" Sirius rolled the crystal ball around on the floor by the foot of his bed.

"Because it's wrong, that's why. When are you ever going to learn?"

"Never," James and Sirius said simultaneously.

Remus dropped his head into his hand. "That's what I was afraid of."

"So will _you_ let me practice divination with you?"

Remus, unlike his friends, had finished his homework much earlier in the evening, and was currently reading a book. He momentarily debated with himself about making Sirius suffer for his own problems, but then he decided that he would rather not be so cruel.

"Oh, all right."

"Haha, yes!" Sirius picked up the crystal ball and set it in its stand on the floor before climbing off of his bed to sit next to it. Remus set his book aside and joined him.

"I don't quite understand the point of this, Sirius," he sighed, crossing his legs before him and leaning back on his palms.

"Well of course you don't. You don't have any interest in this subject, so why should you see the point of it?"

Remus knew that if he were to retort to that, all that would result in would be a fight.

"All right," he settled on saying, "so what exactly are we doing with the crystal ball?"

"_Shh_. I'm trying to concentrate." Sirius seemed to think that 'concentrating' meant scowling into the surface of the crystal ball. "Hang on, there's a smudge on it!" He picked it up as Remus laughed, and he rubbed the bottom of his shirt on the ball to clean it off. As he was setting the ball back on its stand, he gasped and leaned closer to it, peering into its depths.

"What is it?" Remus asked despite himself.

"It's…I see something in there!" Sirius flopped down onto his stomach so that he could be as close as possible to the crystal ball with out having a crick in his neck.

"You look ridiculous, mate."

"Hush—there's, there's—I don't believe it…_Merlin_."

"_What_?" Remus pressed exasperatedly. "If you want my help, you have to tell me what you're seeing, you twat." He flipped disinterestedly through Sirius's Divination textbook.

Sirius glanced up at Remus and then quickly back down, and worried expression in his eyes. "I see death," he whispered. There was no joking tone in his voice any more.

Remus let the pages fall shut. "And…does this apply to my future, or yours?"

Sirius was silent for a moment. "Yours," he said finally."

"My—" Remus wet his lips. "Mine? You sure?"

"Absolutely." Sirius's face was grave.

"But…" Remus glanced over at James and Peter, who didn't seem to have noticed anything. "But does that mean _I'm_ the one who's going to—to kick it, or someone close to me?"

"I—" Sirius blinked and looked back at the crystal ball. "It's…" he bit his lip. "You. It's horribly clear. See? Look." He yanked Remus around to look at his side of the ball.

"I don't see anything," Remus protested.

Sirius shrugged. "I guess you don't have an inner eye for things like this."

Remus's brain, however, was racing. He was going to die? But…

"How can you be so calm about this?" He demanded, distancing himself from the crystal ball as if it were something evil, something contaminated. "You said it yourself—_I'm going to die_."

"You think I'm being calm about this?" Sirius hissed back, frowning. "How do you think _I_ feel, after seeing you—ugh, I don't even want to say it—"

"What do you—"

"What are you two arguing about?" James suddenly asked loudly from his bed. "Did Sirius see that horde of dancing banshees again?"

"I'm going to die," Remus announced, pointing at the crystal ball, his voice trembling and near the verge of hysteria. "He says so."

James flung his legs off of his bed and strode over. "Is that right?"

"I'm not joking, you halfwit!" Sirius exclaimed immediately, before James could accuse him of lying. "I saw it! I saw him—" he broke off and swallowed tightly. "Do I _have _to describe it?"

"_Yes_!" Remus found himself saying sharply, angrily. "I want to know how I'm going to die! I can't avoid it, but…at least I'll know when it is. When am I going to die anyway?"

"How should I know?" Sirius snapped, seizing his textbook and getting up, leaving the crystal ball where it was on the floor and then going to toss the book in his trunk.

"You're the one who saw it!" James shouted.

"_So_? It doesn't have a date. It doesn't say, Remus Lupin, deathday of such-and-such."

"But—" Remus felt lost.

"Look." Sirius turned to face him. "It would be best to just let it all take its course, because there's nothing to do about it anyway.

"And besides," he added, starting to turn away, a small smile on his face, "I lied."

It took a second for the words to sink in. Remus blinked.

"You what?"

Sirius was grinning now. "I lied!" He looked positively gleeful. "My _God_, you're gullible."

"You—you—" Remus couldn't form a sentence.

James began laughing. "You utter, complete _berk_! I can't believe you did that! You even had me fooled!"

Remus began breathing again. "Sirius Black, that was the cruelest thing I have ever witnessed you doing."

Sirius made a low bow. "Why thank you, dear client. I always aim to disrupt."

"_Ugh_. You know I hate you sometimes?" Remus sighed.

"Of course. And you know we all love you to teensy little bits, right? Because you of course aren't allowed to be whole. That would just be a complete waste of potion ingredients, after all."

Remus didn't think it would be worth the mental power to ask what in the world Sirius was going on about.

"I'm going to bed, you lot. If I'm not scheduled to died in the morning, of course. But we can trust Sirius to warn us about that, so there's nothing to worry about," he pronounced darkly, climbing into bed and tugging his blankets over himself.

"One of these days you're going to cry wolf and no one will even blink," he muttered, wrenching his curtains closed.

"I don't think he appreciated that, mate," he heard James say a moment later. "You'd better watch it from now on…." He laughed slightly, and then there was no more talking.

To Be Continued….

AN: Yes, a horribly short chapter, but I felt I should post _something_ after all this time if just to show that I haven't forgotten the story. I have some things planned for the rest of third year, and then once third year is over, the updates will hopefully come more easily, as I have a ton of stuff already written/planned out for the rest of the story.

Review, please!


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